Morpheus’s Legacy Universe – Part 18

The Legacy of the Seven

by

Morpheus

 

I quickly ran a vacuum over the rec room, being careful to get all the main traffic areas even though I'd cleaned it yesterday and it had barely been used since. This was part of my job and I took pride in doing it well. Part of my job included being a janitor though I got paid less than any janitor I knew. That was all right though because I would have happily done most of my job for free.

"Not bad," I mused as I looked over the room, knowing that I still had a few more rooms to clean up before everyone returned.

Just then, my pager began to beep with the sound that indicated it was time for me to go to work at the part of my job that I liked best. I immediately dropped the vacuum and ran down the hall to the monitor room and sat in the captain's chair. It wasn't actually a captain’s chair or anything but that was what I called it since it made me think of the captain's chair from some old sci-fi show.

Once I was comfortably seated in my captain's chair, I turned my attention to the half dozen monitors on the wall in front of me and put my head set on. I looked over the monitor screens to see images of seven people in brightly colored costumes, all getting ready for a fight.

"Eyes are go," I said into the radio to let them know I was ready. Then to myself, I mused, "I love my job."

My job had no official title, though I was effectively the mascot of a super hero group called the Seven. My name is Everett Chambers and I am a pretty normal nineteen year old, in spite of who my friends are. I have no super powers, costume, or code name...except for my radio call sign of Eyes. I'm not a super hero or even an official member of the team, just the guy who hangs around and helps them out with the more ordinary stuff.

I first met the Seven about five years ago, right after they first formed. I was fourteen at the time and a bit cynical from having spent half my life living in uncaring foster homes. I was in the process of running away when I stumbled into the warehouse where they were building their headquarters, and before I knew what was happening, I was captured along with the Seven by some villain. Of course, we all escaped and I even played an important part in doing so.

After my adventure, I had some new role models and spent nearly every available minute hanging out with them at their headquarters. I was hungry for more and wanted to be a real part of the team, doing a few reckless and even stupid things in the process like sneaking along on a few missions. They eventually figured out how to keep me out of trouble, by giving me some responsibility around the headquarters including monitoring duty.

I felt nostalgic for those days which were only five years ago but which seemed so far away. More than half the original team was gone for one reason or another and I'd never really clicked quite as well with some of the newer ones.

Then I shook my head and turned my attention back to my current duties. The Seven often went out on missions with several floating spheres that followed along, containing video cameras to feed footage back to me. It was my job to watch over the battle field, to watch their backs and see things they missed. I also had the files of not only the Seven but of several other groups right at my finger tips so whenever they ran into another hero or villain, I could pull up the information for them to tell them who they were dealing with.

At the moment, the Seven had just arrived to deal with a bank robbery in Portland Oregon being performed by a group of small time villains. I watched the monitors closely, seeing how each of my friends was doing. I had no doubt that they'd do fine without my help, but I still liked doing my part.

The Umbrella was a slender man whose costume looked a little less than super. In fact, he refused to wear a costume at all and only wore a black suit though he always carried a solid black and slightly metallic looking umbrella in his hand. However, this was certainly no ordinary umbrella. This was a magic umbrella, or at least everyone had always believed it was until a year ago when we'd discovered it was actually an alien artifact left on Earth long ago.

For centuries, the artifact was passed from warrior to warrior, bonding with each owner for the rest of their live and becoming their ideal weapon. It had been a sword, an axe, a spear, and even a shield during that time. But when it felt into the hands of the man who became the Umbrella, he was not a warrior nor looking for a weapon. Instead, it was pouring rain and all he wanted at that moment was an umbrella to help him stay dry. The artifact sensed that and when it bonded to him, it took the form of an umbrella and has continued looking like one ever since.

"Umbrella," I exclaimed, "look out behind you."

The Umbrella snapped around and popped open his umbrella, just in time for several balls of fire to hit it and be stopped cold. A villain I didn't recognize threw several more fire balls at the Umbrella but he easily blocked the attacks with his umbrella shield. His umbrella was pretty much indestructible but could be used for more than just a shield.

As I watched, the Umbrella raised his umbrella above his head and was lifted into the air like Mary Poppins, just in time to avoid being hit by another fire ball. A moment later, he dropped to the ground almost right in front of the villain, closing the umbrella and then hitting him with it like a club. From my monitor, I could see the point of the umbrella growing longer and sharper like a blade. The Umbrella then used his umbrella like a sword to slice through a light pole on the side of the street. This was enough to make his opponent surrender.

The Traveler was another of the Seven, a middle-aged Asian man wearing a black and white costume with a flowing white cloak that seemed to move a little on its own. The cloak was magic and was a portal to some other dimension which he could use to teleport through a swell as perform a few other tricks. At the moment, he was walking in mid-air as though it was solid ground, staying above the fight for the most part. One of the villains opened fire with a gun, shooting him from behind. The bullet went through the back of his cloak and then vanished into whatever dimension it was linked to. The hole in the cloak sealed up almost immediately. As long as the Traveler was wearing that cloak, it would protect him from a lot of harm as well as let him travel.

I turned my attention away from the Traveler, who was dealing with his own opponent and focused on Hellshot. He had a red and black costume with white shoulder pads and belt. In his hand, he carried a strange looking white bow that had no string. However, he didn't need a string as he pulled back as though drawing the string and an arrow made of fire appeared in his hand, just in time to be shot at his opponent. The arrow hit an empty car and melted a hole right through it while setting the metal on fire. Hellshot's bow was actually made from the rib bone of a powerful demon and had the power to summon hellfire which could burn just about anything.

Then I saw Hellshot's opponent, a woman with long white hair and a blue and white costume. She was throwing shuriken that were painted white and shaped like snowflakes. I immediately recognized her from her file, which was easy to do since I looked through our files on villains as a sort of hobby.

"Hellshot, you're fighting Snowflake," I told him. "She's an assassin who specializes in shuriken. Don't let one hit you... She charges them with some sort of cryogenic field so they cause severe frostbite wherever they hit."

"I know who she is," Hellshot snapped in response. "I fought her once before."

"Vesper," I called to another of the Seven.

Vesper was a dark haired woman in her late twenties with a black and violet costume. She was currently floating about two feet above the ground, thanks to her telekinetic power, and fighting a woman dressed in a green and black costume with a snake motif.

"That's Sister Serpent," I told Vesper. "She's a snake sorceress who likes using poison... Keep your distance."

"Thanks," Vesper responded.

I watched for a moment as Sister Serpent held up her staff and said some strange words and snakes began to appear all over the ground around her. However, Vesper was able to telekinetically hold all the snakes back with ease. Sister Serpent used another spell and suddenly her staff began to spray a nasty green liquid at Vesper. However, Vesper was able to easily move out of the way and then used her own powers to send a garbage can flying at the sorceress. Sister Serpent responded by throwing her staff at Vesper and it turned into a snake in mid-air and wrapped around Vesper.

"I've got you," exclaimed Armory, the newest member of the Seven.

Armory was a young black woman about my age and she was wearing a suit of lightweight blue and gray armor. She had no actual powers but was a genius at inventing weapons. In fact, she carried an entire arsenal on her, stored in folded space pockets throughout her armor. She pulled an energy sword out and used it to slice through the snake that was holding Vesper then the two of them quickly took down Sister Serpent.

Since they were fine, I turned my attention to Morass, another newcomer to the team. His power was to create and control a thick and nasty black tar which he usually covered his entire body in like armor. With his tar armor, he looked to be a huge and hulking tar monster who moved at a very slow pace but was very strong and difficult to injure. Tentacles of tar came from his body and tried to wrap around one of the three opponents he was currently facing though the tar was too slow to be very effective. However, he was able to spray a burst of it at the ground and make it very difficult for two of the villains to move.

"Look out behind you Morass," I told him over the radio. "One of them is trying to sneak up on you."

Before Morass could even turn around, a quick blur came out of nowhere and the villain who'd been trying to sneak up on him was unconscious on the ground. Landspeed, the last member of the Seven stood over the villain who looked to have been taken down in record speed. She was a young woman with shoulder length red hair and a blue and white costume which included a mask that covered the top part of her face. Even if her code name didn't give it away, her rapid movements would have told anyone that she was a speedster.

It didn't take the Seven very long to end the fight and round up all the villains. Most of these villains were small time, with Snowflake and Sister Serpent being the only real dangerous ones. They probably just met and decided to work together for what they thought would be an easy score. However, their operation was nowhere near the level of the old Black Guild, which was fortunate for us.

I knew from long experience that the Seven would stick around for awhile to deal with the police and ensure the villains were in full custody before leaving. However, my job was done for the moment, or at least my monitoring job was done. I still had some rooms to vacuum and other things to take care of.

In spite of the fight being over, I didn't get up and leave quite yet. Instead, I watched through the monitors for another minute, feeling a longing that had never quite gone away. Even now after five years, I wasn't completely satisfied just being the team mascot and assistant. I knew it was silly since I wasn't developed and had no powers or special abilities, but I still wished I could be out there fighting the bad guys as one of them.

I grunted as I strained against the weight I was pushing, struggling to bench more than I ever have before. I strained for a moment more and did it, successfully beating my old bench press record by ten pounds. I settled the bar on the rests then let out a sigh of relief.

I sat up and grinned, feeling pleased since this had been a good workout. I looked around the weight room, knowing that it was a pretty good thing the headquarters was loaded up with something like this that I could use during my down time. It helped me get in shape, though sometimes it was hard to tell if it was working.

After a moment, I looked in the mirror, not feeling all that impressed by what I saw. I was 5 foot 11 with dirty blonde hair and was a bit overweight. No matter how much I exercised, I never seemed to lose my chubbiness. I frowned at the sight, thinking that I'd probably look pretty silly in spandex. Besides not having any powers, this was another reason why I would never make it as a super hero.

Since I hung around super heroes all the time, I was aware of the fact that most of them were in fantastic shape. There was a theory that the process of having super powers tends to speed up the metabolism and supercharge your body so that you burn fat faster and build muscle more easily. However, knowing that didn't make me feel any less self-conscious.

"Maybe I'll hit the tread mill a bit longer tomorrow," I mused as I left the gym.

Just as I was leaving, Vesper was entering. "Hey Everett," she greeted me with a pleasant smile.

"Vesper," I nodded back. Her real name was Amelia, but I was in the habit of using her code name when she was in costume. It was a good habit to be in around here since it prevented accidentally giving away too much information to the bad guys.

"I was wondering," she said with a thoughtful look, "Did you happen to update the files from yesterday?"

"Yeah," I responded "I put in everything we know about those new villains from the bank robbery yesterday. The Protectorate, Faction Zero, the Guard, the Miracle Men and Lightning Force should all have access to it now."

"Good," Vesper nodded. Then she chuckled, "You know, I was never very good on keeping up with the paperwork. I never would have imagined there'd be so much of it in this link of work." Then she grinned at me and added, "I don't know how you're always able to keep on top of it all. Without you, our records would probably be nonexistent."

I grinned at the compliment, definitely feeling pleased by it since I'd always looked up to Vesper. In a way, she was almost like the big sister I never had. "Thanks, but all I really do is update them after your missions."

"Please," Vesper rolled her eyes. "You were the one who first suggested we share our records with the other groups. If not for you, then we'd all just be relying on our own records and experience. You not only helped make the Seven more effective, you also helped these other groups as well."

By this point, I was practically beaming with pride, though I was also a little self-conscious about the praise. "So," I quickly changed the subject, "has the White Knight said anything about coming back?"

"No," she shook her head, frowning slightly. "He's happy with his family and their own group Knight Force. I've told him we miss him here, but honestly, I don't blame him for leaving after all that's happened here."

Just then, Landspeed came down the hall, walking at a slow and easy pace which seemed a little out of place for someone who could move at super speed. "Hey Everett, how's it hanging?"

"Not bad," I responded with a grin.

Landspeed, or Karen as I called her outside of costume had been the youngest of the Seven and the closest to my own age until Armory recently joined us so the two of us always got along pretty well. In fact, she was one of my closest friends and my favorite person to just hang around with. However, our relationship had never been anything beyond that since neither of us were quite what the other was interested in romantically. She was a little too hyper for me and I just wasn't active enough for her.

"I just picked up a new video game," Landspeed exclaimed. "I can't wait to kick your ass on it."

I winced at that, knowing that this was no idle brag. I shrugged and responded, "You wouldn't win all the time if you didn't have developed reflexes..." However, that never seemed to stop me from playing against her.

Landspeed just stuck her tongue out at me and teased, "There's no need to be jealous, slow poke." Then she turned her attention to Vesper and said, "Oh, Amelia... I've been wanting to talk to you about training..."

As they quickly got into a conversation about training schedules, I turned and continued on my way. I remembered what Vesper had been saying about the White Knight not coming back because of everything that had happened around here. I frowned, feeling a little sad at that though I couldn't blame him. The Seven had been a great team but we'd gone through several tragedies that sometimes made it hard to stay.

With those thoughts in mind, I went into the memorial room. I've been in the headquarters of several super hero groups and they each had a room like this, a trophy or memorial room in order to help preserve some of their past. I'd always thought that part of it was bragging about their accomplishments but I think it also served as a way to make them feel more legitimate and official. Our memorial room wasn't much different except that it was filled with my own memories, some happy and some far less so.

I looked at several of the pictures hanging on the wall, my eyes stopping for just a moment on a glass case which contained a newspaper clipping. This was an article about the Seven's first public appearance when they'd fought a giant crab monster that was attacking Seattle. It had been terrifying at the time, but looking back, there was a certain ironic silliness to it.

"Those were the days," I said with a faint chuckle.

Then I looked at a large picture of the whole team with everyone standing there posing. I was even included in this one, standing off to the side with a grin and giving a big thumbs up to the camera. I felt a surge of sadness as I stared at this picture, knowing that those days were long gone and wouldn't be coming back. Four of the people in that picture were no longer with the Seven and two of them weren't even alive.

I turned away from the picture and looked across the rest of the room, especially looking at two glass cases with uniforms stored inside of them. In the first case was a man's costume which was displayed on a mannequin. The right side of the costume was blue with white stars scattered across it and the left side had horizontal red and white stripes. A half dozen shuriken that were painted white and looked like five pointed stars were on display in the case alongside the costume. This had all belonged to Matt Reynolds, also known as the High Flying Flag.

The other costume was a green and white woman's costume, also displayed on a mannequin. This had belonged to Michelle Lewis who'd also been known as Echo. She used to absorb sonic energy and then release it again with a variety of tricks such as sonic blasts or deafening her opponents, though the most interesting of which had always been what she could do at karaoke.

I shook my head and then looked back at the photo, specifically looking at a beautiful young woman with black hair and tan skin. Jessica, also known as Guardian Angel had been very special to me at one time. Back when she'd been a member of the Seven, I had a huge crush on her. Unfortunately, she barely seemed to know I existed and only had eyes for Matt. That might not have been so bad except that Matt was more interested in Michelle.

Jealousy can be a very powerful and dangerous thing...even among super heroes. Michelle and Jessica argued, passions flared, and it exploded into a full on fight. In the heat of the moment, Jessica killed Michelle and then ran away. The rest of us were all shocked and horrified, especially Matt who blamed himself. The next time we saw Jessica she was had become a villain and was calling herself the Fallen. That was also when she killed Matt as well.

The White Knight left the Seven shortly after that, claiming that he wanted to spend more time with his family. I knew that there was more to his reasons than just that though. After all, he'd just had two of his friends murdered by a young woman who until that time, had been his own protege.

"Damn," I muttered, closing my eyes and thinking how things might have turned out different if only I'd had the guys to ask Jessica out. Maybe if I'd told her how I felt, that there was someone else who cared about her. Of course, I knew that it wasn't my fault and she was just too obsessed with Matt...but knowing and feeling were two different things.

I tore my attention from the picture and walked around the room, trying to distract myself with the other pictures and mementos. There were plenty of good memories here and I smiled faintly as I looked at a few of the other pictures. I even groaned when I saw one of me from back when I was fourteen and dressed up in ugly home-made costume which I'd somehow thought was cool at the time. At the time, I sort of thought that all I had to do to become a real hero was have a costume and code name. Of course, reality quickly pointed out otherwise and in a fashion that nearly got me killed. Vesper still teased me about that occasionally.

Just as I was completing my round of the room and making notes of where I should pay extra attention to when I dust in here next when a loud alarm suddenly began going off. I froze for a second, recognizing it as the intruder alarm. It was also the indication that I should go to the monitor room and lock myself inside until we at least knew what we were dealing with.

I ran to the rec room to cut through it when I saw Morass was already there, powered down and wearing his normal flat black costume. However, as I watched the black tar he created began to form and ooze around him. I gasped in horror at the site. I absolutely hated it when he used his powers in the headquarters because that nasty black tar got into everything and was a royal pain in the ass to clean up. Sure, he could make it dry out and crumble to dust when he was done, but that still left a huge mess that I had to clean.

Then I suddenly noticed the intruder on the other side of the rec room and realized this was why Morass was armoring up. He was a tall, thin man in his mid twenties with black hair that had a white lock hanging from the front. He wore a costume that was red and gold with a little black thrown in, had a long red cape, and he held a black staff had looked like a dragons head at the top with two glowing red eyes.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed, immediately recognizing our intruder since the Seven had fought him twice before. "LOKI!"

Loki had no connection to god of Norse mythology but was instead a dangerous sorcerer. In fact, he used to be just a small time anarchist who'd been involved in several arsons, robberies, and even a riot or two, but he'd never been a real danger until he somehow became bonded to a magic staff. The staff gave him access to very powerful chaos magic, but it was very unpredictable and dangerous even to him. The more he tried to control it the more likely it was to turn on him, so as a result, he just gave the staff general directions and let it follow them however it wished.

I grimaced as I tried remembering everything I could about Loki in the hopes I could think of something useful, though unfortunately, there was very little to know. I knew that Loki was his old nickname from before he gained the staff and that no one knew his real name, not even him. Shortly after gaining his power, Loki had tried hiding his identity from the police by erasing it from their memories, however, the magic had been too powerful and had erased it from his own mind as well. In fact, the magic had even gone so far as to destroy every record of his real name, written or digital.

Morass started towards Loki who just stood there with a smirk. Loki’s presence blocked my route to the monitor room, and in spite of the danger, I wasn’t about to just turn around and run away. I’ve never been very good at keeping away from these things if I had a chance to watch.

Suddenly, Landspeed ran into the room at blinding speed and stopped to yell out, “It’s Loki…”

Vesper rushed in next, looking grim as she saw Loki standing there with a grin on his face. “Loki,” she spat out. “You must be stupid coming here. You know we aren’t letting you leave.”

“How do you plan on stopping me?” Loki asked. “I have the power to do anything.”

“We stopped you before,” Landspeed responded with a smirk. “Twice.”

“You just got lucky,” Loki snorted. “And I’m here to make sure it never happens again.” Then he held up his staff and exclaimed, “Take us all somewhere we won’t be interrupted.”

I suddenly felt a strange nausea which passed after just a moment and it was obvious from the others reactions that I wasn’t the only one. “What the hell was that?” I muttered. Then to Loki, I taunted, “It looks like whatever you were trying failed big time.”

Loki ignored me and suddenly snapped around to face Morass who had continued slowly approaching. “Destroy him,” Loki yelled.

The moment the words left Loki’s mouth, the tar that covered Morass’ body burst into flame. He howled a horrific sound as he staggered back, leaving flaming tar foot prints behind him. When he bumped into a wall the fire spread to it as well.

“Morass,” Landspeed exclaimed in shock and horror.

“Let me,” Armory yelled as she ran into the room, stopping to reach for her leg. She touched a spot on her thigh and a large and strange looking rifle suddenly appeared in her hands.

“Shoot his ass,” I called out.

But to my surprise, Armory didn’t point her weapon at Loki but at Morass. She fired and the rifle shot out a spray of some liquid that immediately turned to a thick foam when it hit Morass, extinguishing the fire as it did so. Once the fire on Morass was out, she turned to the other fires and neutralized them as well.

Morass collapsed to his knees, the tar covering his body looking dried out and cracked. Then it all dried out and cracked further, crumbling away to dust as it usually did when he removed it. A moment later, he struggled back to his feet, no longer protected by his tar and looking exhausted but defiant.

Vesper didn’t say a word but the pool table in the corner suddenly floated into the air and straight at Loki. He muttered something I couldn’t quite hear and the pool table suddenly vanished.

Landspeed ran at Loki but before she reached him, she suddenly bounced back as though she’d hit a rubber wall. Loki just laughed, looking like he thought this was some sort of game.

“Oh no you don’t,” Armory exclaimed, dropping her fire extinguisher gun and reaching for her belt. As soon as she touched the buckle, a new gun appeared in her hand. She immediately aimed it at Loki and spat out, “Eat hot plasma.”

“Protect me,” Loki commanded.

Armory opened fire but the energy blasts from her gun hit an invisible force field which now seemed to surround Loki. She fired several more shots but couldn’t get through.

Loki just stared at her with an almost maniacal grin before saying, “Die.”

Armory suddenly exploded. I could only stare in horror as one second she was standing there firing at Loki and the next…body parts and armor pieces where violently flung across the room.

“Oooh,” Loki exclaimed with a wince. “Messy.”

“Beth,” Vesper yelled, using Armory’s real name

Vesper didn’t say another word as she telekinetically flung furniture at Loki. However, his force field was still there so it didn’t go any good, nor did the pool balls that Landspeed was throwing at super speeds.

“Get out of here Everett,” Vesper told me. “Find the others.”

“Damn,” I responded, turning and running to do as she said. As much as I hated it, I was pretty much useless in this kind of fight but Umbrella, Traveler and Hellshot wouldn’t be. If I could find them, that would at least be useful.

I ran into the Umbrella almost right away and he looked a little shaken. “We are no longer where we were,” he told me. “I just looked outside…and I have no idea where the bloody hell we are.”

“It’s Loki,” I told him, pointing back the way I’d come. “He’s killed Armory.”

“And he just killed Morass,” another voice said. I snapped around to see the Traveler, looking very grim.

Hellshot appeared next, holding his bow in hand. His other hand twitched as though he could barely keep from drawing a hellfire arrow.

“He goes down,” Hellshot said in a cold tone. “For good.”

Just then, there was a loud explosion from the direction of the rec room. Hellshot, the Umbrella, and the Traveler all rushed in that direction. I hesitated a moment than followed after them.

The rec room was an even bigger mess than before, and after Armory blew up, it had looked like a slaughter house. What was left of Morass was pinned up against a wall with a dozen swords rammed through his body. All of the furniture was in shattered pieces and now there was an enormous hole through a wall through which I could see outside the headquarters.

“Holy shit,” I exclaimed, my heart racing as I ran out to where I could see the others fighting Loki.

I was stunned to see that our headquarters was no longer where it had been but instead seemed to be in the middle of some desert. There was sand and dunes in every direction as far as I could see.

“Holy shit,” I repeated, remembering Loki’s order to take us where we wouldn’t be interrupted. “He teleported the entire headquarters…” And knowing the way Loki’s magic worked, he probably had no more idea of where we were than I did.

Vesper was floating in the area, moving sand around telekinetically and blasting Loki with it. Then Landspeed started running circles around our opponent, creating a vortex of wind and sand around him while Vesper began to pour more sand in from the top.

“Keep him trapped and bury him alive,” Hellshot muttered with a nod of approval.

But then I suddenly heard Loki laughing…from a different direction. I snapped around and saw that he was no longer in Landspeed’s vortex but had teleported himself out.

Hellshot didn’t hesitate before pulling back his imaginary bow string and firing an arrow of pure hellfire. However, Loki muttered something and suddenly the arrow changed direction and came right back at him. The Traveler jumped in front of Hellshot and held his cloak wide so when the arrow hit the inside of the cloak, it vanished into the other dimension.

“Attack,” Loki exclaimed and suddenly a ball of fire shot straight at me. The Umbrella jumped in the way and blocked the blast with his umbrella.

“Get to safety,” the Umbrella told me with a grimace.

“Where?” I asked. “We’re in the middle of the damn desert.”

Then I had an idea and turned to run back into the headquarters. The sight of the rec room covered with blood and core made me want to throw up but I couldn’t afford that now. I tried to put that out of my mind as I picked up the plasma gun that Armory had been holding when she’d been killed. In fact, her hand was still wrapped around the grip so I had to pry her fingers off it.

“Oh gross,” I muttered with a wince, pausing to empty my stomach for a moment. “I’m sorry about this Beth.”

I ran back out to rejoin the fight just in time to see that Loki had summoned a swarm of bees that were the size of birds. Vesper was grabbing as many as she could with her telekinesis while Landspeed was using her vortex trick again to round up as many as possible.

“We need to work together,” Vesper called out.

“We need to nail his ass,” Hellshot exclaimed.

Loki muttered, “I need more time to think…” Then he looked at us all and started laughing again. “Distract them.”

I suddenly felt extremely dizzy and then the entire world went completely black. It came back a second later but everything was wrong and confusing. I found myself in mid-air and screamed as I dropped about twenty feet into a sand dune.

I scrambled back to my feet, feeling completely off balance and wrong. I could tell with every fiber of my being that something was seriously messed up with my body.

When I looked down at myself, I was stunned to see two mounds pushing out from my chest, enough that it took me several more seconds to really register the fact that I was wearing a black and violet costume that covered everything from the neck down.

“No fucking way,” I blurted out, recognizing the costume and realizing what had happened to me. “He turned me into Vesper…”

I fought the urge to grab the breasts I was now sporting and instead looked around, seeing that everyone was confused and off balance. Obviously, I was not the only one affected by this.

“I’m Landspeed,” the apparent Landspeed exclaimed in horror.

Loki took full advantage of our distraction and ordered, “Kill them all.”

Just then, a strange creature appeared out of nowhere. It was eight feet tall, humanoid in shape, and definitely male. He had pale gray skin that was thick and bony looking, and instead of hands, his arms below the elbows were long and sharp looking blades made from the same bony material as his skin.

The creature let out a loud roar and then charged forward, slashing out with one of its blade arms and hitting Landspeed…or whoever was in her body. She let out a scream of pain and then collapsed to the ground with her entrails spilling out around her.

Whoever was in my body didn’t hesitate and opened fire with the gun I’d picked up. He hit the creature several times in the chest and appeared to do some damage as well as make the creature angry.

The creature charged again, going straight at my body and through anyone in the way. One arm lashed out and cut off the Umbrella’s head which hit the ground before his body did. The umbrella hit the ground as well and began to melt and shrink until there was nothing left but a black metal ball the size of a cantaloupe.

“Look out,” I yelled in warning, though it did little good.

Whoever was in my body tried jumping out of the way of the rampaging creature but it was faster than it looked. A second later, my own body had been literally cut in two in front of me.

“How do I use this thing?” the person in Hellshot’s body demanded, holding up the bow and trying to use it. Unfortunately, it did little good as the bow didn’t respond or show any sign of its power.

I was absolutely horrified by what was happening around me. I’d just watched my friends die, even though I didn’t know exactly which ones had been killed. And even worse, I’d watched my own body getting slaughtered with ease.

In spite of my horror, I tried to think of what I could do. I ran for the Traveler and knocked him aside as the monster tried killing him, but unfortunately, the creature just lashed out again, this time at me. I scrambled backwards and tried getting away but his blade came down and into my flesh. I screamed in agony as the blade sliced through my upper arm and completely severed it.

I fell backwards and hit the ground, grabbing at my right arm and finding that it ended just several inches down from the shoulder. Hot sticky blood was spurting out all over the place and I knew that I’d bleed to death in no time at all.

The creature came to finish me off but was suddenly hit by whoever was in Hellshot’s body. He was using Hellshot’s bow as a club to beat the creature but this only succeeded in attracting the monster’s attention. It snapped around and rammed a blade through the apparent Hellshot’s stomach, impaling him and then casually tossing him aside.

A moment later, the creature impaled the apparent traveler as well, hitting him from behind so his blade went through the cloak. However, the blade never came out the front side or made it to the apparent Traveler’s body since it was briefly diverted to the other dimension instead. It pulled the blade back out and the cloak repaired itself immediately afterwards.

“Oh no you don’t,” Loki exclaimed. “Stop.”

Suddenly, the apparent traveler froze with a look of horror on his face as he began sinking into the sand. It was as though the sand beneath him had turned into quick sand. He had only sunk halfway when the creature impaled him again, this time from the front where the cloak wasn’t protecting him. He collapsed dead and stopping sinking any further.

“I did it,” Loki yelled excitedly. “I killed the fucking Seven. Oh yeah, I am the man…” Then he laughed in delight, kicking the Umbrella’s head. “Maybe next I’ll take down the Protectorate.”

I remained where I was, trying to stay absolutely still. I was ashamed of myself for playing dead but I knew it was my only chance to survive.

“So long losers,” Loki called out just a moment before he vanished. Just seconds after Loki was gone, the murderous creature he’d summoned faded away as well.

“No,” I gasped weakly, feeling too tired to do much. I struggled to get to my feet while holding my bloody stump with my good hand. My only chance was to get a tourniquet.

I staggered a few feet before I collapsed to the ground again, too weak to keep going. I’d already lost too much blood and it wasn’t stopping. My whole team was dead… All my friends had been murdered in front of me and at the rate I was losing blood, I’d be dead as well in just a few more minutes.

“My arm,” I whispered, thankful that at least it wasn’t hurting quite so much anymore. Of course, a part of me was aware that this was actually a very bad sign.

Then I suddenly felt something crawling on my leg, moving up my body. I groaned weakly, thinking that it was just my luck that I was laying here bleeding to death in a body that wasn’t my own and now some sort of snake or spider was climbing all over me. It would be horribly ironic that after all this, I’d die from some poisonous animal.

Whatever was climbing on me moved from my chest to my severed stump of an arm which made me think that this had to be some sort of predator or scavenger that was drawn by the blood and an easy meal.

I opened my eyes and looked to my stump, stunned to see some sort of black metallic blob wrapping itself around the wound and sealing it completely. Then some of the black oozed up the small remaining part of my arm and only stopped once it got to my shoulder.

“What…?” I gasped in confusion.

If this wasn’t strange enough so far, the black metallic blob began to grow and spread out from where my arm had been severed. It was like it was growing a tentacle. Then after a moment, I was stunned to realize that it was taking a familiar shape. The tentacle was turning into an arm. I was growing a black metal arm to replace the one that had been cut off.

“The Umbrella,” I gasped in sudden realization.

When the Umbrella had died, the artifact which had been his umbrella had reverted to its basic form and searched for a new host…me. But unlike any of the previous hosts, I wasn’t a warrior who needed a weapon or even an umbrella. At the moment, my greatest concern was my severed arm so it must have used that as the basis for its new form.

Hundreds of questions ran through my mind but just as quickly slid away. I was exhausted and drained in nearly every way imaginable so I was barely able to absorb all this before I slid into darkness.

I awoke with intense aches and discomfort through my entire body. Then, as I remembered what had happened the pain spread to every fiber of my being, all the way down to the depths of my soul.

I have no idea how long I remained where I was, too exhausted to open my eyes and get up. It was more than physical exhaustion though, but a bone draining emotional exhaustion and fear of what I'd find once I finally did so. Eventually though, I knew that I had to get up. I had to face the nightmare that was my reality.

When I opened my eyes and sat up, my mouth was full of sand and my eyes were full of grit. My body ached even more than before, not to mention feeling strange and uncomfortable. I realized that I was lying in sand and that it was night out, that the sun had set while I'd been unconscious. The moon nearly full though and provided enough light to see something of what surrounded me. The sight of my friend's bodies scattered about and half buried in the sand sent a cold chill right through my heart.

I spat out the sand and began coughing then struggled to my feet. My entire body felt weak and rubbery not to mention completely and totally off balance. I could barely stand up much less stand up straight. Once I was at least fairly certain that I wouldn't fall back down onto my face, I looked down at myself. I had two breasts sticking out from my chest, a clear indication that I was still in Vesper's body...as if I didn't already know that. My right arm had also grown back though now looked as though the entire thing was made lf black metal.

"Holy sh1t," I whispered, moving my arm and my fingers experimentally. I opened and closed my fist several times, thinking that it felt completely strange.

As shocking as my body was though, it paled in comparison to my friends being dead. I slowly moved to the Traveler's body and checked for a pulse even though I already knew that I wouldn't find one. Then I slowly moved from one body to the next, checking the pulse and feeling a little more of myself die each time. It was especially disconcerting to check the pulse of my own body which lay there dead as well.

Once I'd checked on everyone who'd been left in the sand, I stood there in stunned silence. I felt a deep sorrow to the depths of my being greater than any that I'd ever imagined possible. Then something else began percolating there as well. A bubbling rage began to form and froth until it finally exploded from my throat as a loud and primal scream that seemed to go on forever.

At the same time I was screaming, I was only vaguely aware that the sand around me began to shake and then suddenly exploded away from me. All I knew was that when my throat felt raw and sore and I had no more voice go give, I collapsed to my knees in utter exhaustion, in the middle of a small crater that had formed around me in the sand.

I remained in this position for some time with tears running down my cheeks. Then I slowly forced myself back to my feet and staggered towards the gaping hole in our headquarters. I stepped inside the ruined rec room, seeing that it was dark inside since the headquarters had been removed from the main power grid. However, there were battery powered emergency lights which gave me enough light to seeMorass still pinned to the wall and Armory spread over the entire floor. I didn't have enough left in my stomach to get sick again.

"Oh God," I told myself with a wince. "I can't leave them like this..."

I went to Morass first and began pulling the swords out of his body one at a time. It was disgusting and I was already exhausted but I was determined not to stop until I was finished getting him down. I quickly discover that even though my body didn't have much energy or strength left, my right arm didn't seem to have that problem. That made it easier to just use that arm to pull out the blades.

Once I had Morass down, I set his body in the corner of the room then went to work collecting Armory. It was unbelievably disgusting as I picked up the pieces of her body and gathered them in one spot. It was even nastier when I slipped on some of the blood and fell right into some of her entrails.

“I’m sorry Beth,” I whispered tearfully as I continued with my work.

I finished gathering armory up into one spot and felt as though I was going to collapse. However, I wasn’t finished yet. I made my way back outside and began pulling the others inside as well. I expected that it would have been more difficult dealing with my own body, but by this time I was feeling a bit numb.

When I was pulling Travelers body inside, I noticed that his cloak was still perfectly clean with no sign of blood or wear. It looked as though it was still brand new though I knew it had been around for a long time and had seen a lot of action.

Traveler’s cloak came off while I was moving him, so after I’d placed his body inside I went back for his cloak. I brought it inside and folded it up, placing it in a clean spot. Hellshot’s bow joined it a few minutes later.

“There,” I said once I’d had everyone inside, even Vesper’s severed arm. Of course, it had been my arm at the time it had been cut off but it felt easier to think of it as hers since it had come from her real body.

Until now, I hadn’t given much thought about what I was going to do with their bodies once I had them. Now, it suddenly seemed very appropriate to just seal up the headquarters and let the sand claim it. It would be their tomb, buried beneath the desert like the tombs of ancient pharaohs.

Then another thought suddenly occurred to me. Vesper…Amelia was Catholic and would have wanted a proper funeral. Of course, that would be hard to do since I was currently using her body.

Hellshot…Ben had once told me that he wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered over a lake. Landspeed…Karen would have wanted to be buried in her family plot. And then there was Umbrella who had a sister and mother who would have wanted to say goodbye.

“Damn,” I said with a sigh. I was going to have to find some way of getting their bodies back home to their families, at least those who had families.

I slowly turned and left the rec room, trying to form some idea of what I was going to do next. I had no idea where in the world I was much less how to get back to civilization with the bodies of my friends. How could I possibly haul them all back?

Then I suddenly had an idea. It could probably wait until I’d cleaned up and rested, but I wasn’t going to let my friends wait any longer than necessary. My determination gave me a second wind of energy which carried me down the hall.

A minute later, I stepped into Armory’s workshop. Armory hadn’t been with the team long but she’d already set up a work shop where she built and repaired all of her weapons. There were benches set up along two walls while a third had shelves full of weapons, most of which I had no idea of what they were. The benches themselves were full of high tech equipment and half built devices. All of it was well lit with the flip of a switch since Armory had the lights in here hooked to her own private battery.

My attention went to the largest piece of equipment in the room, a strange looking device that looked something like a large ray gun mounted on a platform. The whole thing was way too large for Armory to bring to the field but it was on a cart so I could push it through the hallway.

“I hope this works,” I grunted, grabbing the device and pushing it towards the rec room. It was a lot of effort to move and I didn’t have any energy to spare. Still, if it worked it would be worth it.

When I reached the rec room, I turned on the device, remembering the demonstration that Armory had given me. Armory’s device was not a weapon but was a way to contain captured villains. She’d been quite proud of it, claiming that it would change the way heroes dealt with captured villains and that it could eliminate escapes.

I set the device up the way Armory had shown me and fired it at Umbrella’s body. Suddenly, his entire body was covered in a blue glow as he was put into stasis, preventing his body changing at all. This would protect his body and prevent any decomposition as long as he remained in stasis. Next, Umbrella’s body vanished as the device transferred it into a pocket of folded space, using the same technology Armory had used on her armor in order to store all her weapons.

“One down,” I said quietly, turning the device on the rest of my friends.

I turned the device on Hellshot’s body next and then Landspeed. It took nearly a full minute to process each one but within ten minutes all of the bodies were gone including my own. Now their bodies would all be perfectly preserved until I could get them to a place they could be properly dealt with, not to mention, being stored in folded space would make them much easier to transport.

Since the bodies had all been dealt with for the moment, I was finally able to leave the rec room. I slowly started down the hallway, not even sure where I was going only that I needed to get cleaned up and get some rest. I hadn’t even made it halfway down the hall before I collapsed to the ground and sank back into darkness again.

Waking up left me with a strong sense of déjà-vu and it wasn’t any better than the last time. My entire body was still extremely sore and uncomfortable, a fact made even worse by the fact that this time I’d been unconscious on the hard floor rather than the soft sand. Of course, this time I didn’t wake up with sand in my mouth either.

I got back to my feet, using the wall for balance and wondering how long I’d been out this time. That just led to me wondering what I was going to do next. I still felt emotionally drained but I also felt a little confused and lost.

It wasn’t until I stepped back that I noticed there was a bloody hand print where I’d been leaning up against the wall. I looked down at myself and winced in disgust. My entire body was covered with blood and gore, much of it dried but certainly not all of it.

“Oh God,” I gasped, closing my eyes and taking several deep breaths as I tried to keep from throwing up. I didn’t have anything left to come up which made it a little easier but no less pleasant.

I knew I shouldn’t be at all surprised that I was covered with this stuff only that I hadn’t noticed it earlier. A lot of this was my own blood from when my arm had been cut off and of course, there was the spill I had into Armory’s blood. I’d probably gotten blood from all my other friends on me as well while I’d been collecting their bodies. I’d just been so distracted by everything that I hadn’t given it any thought.

“I need to get cleaned,” I said, feeling strangely guilty for even thinking about that.

After all, my friends had all been slaughtered in front of me and I was left in one of their bodies. It almost felt like I was insulting their memory and being extremely selfish for even considering something like that. However, I was absolutely disgusting and new that I needed to get cleaned.

“Take one thing at a time,” I told myself, trying to remember everything I’d learned about dealing with a crisis situation. “Take care of the urgent things first… Prioritize…”

I’d already done everything I could for my friends at the moment so the next thing I needed to do was take care of myself. That meant getting cleaned up and then deal with my own situation. I felt a little better about my decision as I walked down the hall, going slow as my body hurt and I still felt wiped out.

Back when the White Knight had been with the Seven, he’d always been big about having contingency plans for emergencies. He was the one who’d had the emergency lighting installed in case we lost commercial power. He’d also installed an emergency generator so we could power the critical systems like the monitor room.

I went to the generator room and started it up then flipped the switch to divert power from only the critical systems so the overhead lights came back on. That would make things a lot easier. I only wish I would have thought of it earlier.

A few minutes later, I staggered into one of the bathrooms, hesitating a few seconds before I looked in the full sized mirror that hung on the wall. The sight that met me looked like something straight out of a horror movie. The reflection that looked back was that of Vesper, but not the bright Vesper that I knew. This one looked exhausted, sick, not to mention utterly filthy. She looked like she’d barely survived some sort of horror movie killer…or more accurately…like she didn’t survive.

“Shit,” I muttered, staring at my reflection for a moment with a strange mixture of horror and curiosity. Then I turned away, feeling guilty instead. “Focus…”

It took me nearly a full minute to find the hidden zipper on the one piece bodysuit costume I was wearing and to slide out of it. The costume fell to the floor and I made a mental note to burn it. Then I hesitated a moment before removing the bra and panties I was wearing.

Once I was completely naked, I looked over my body again and saw that I had a few nasty bruises. I hesitantly reached up with my left hand and felt my right shoulder, right where the black metal met the skin. It said something that my first impulse was to check that and not the breasts I now had or what was missing between my legs.

Of course, I was curious about my new anatomy but it felt like a massive invasion of privacy. In fact, I felt guilty just standing here naked in Amelia’s body. I felt even more guilty at the thought that I was standing here in her body while she was dead, perhaps having been in mine when it happened.

I avoided exploring my body and instead focused on what I was in here for. I climbed into the shower and turned it on, thankful that the White Knight had insisted on a large water storage tank for this place.

The hot water hurt as it hit my skin, especially as it hit my face, but it still felt good at the same time. It unknotted a lot of muscles and relaxed the bruises. I closed my eyes and just felt the water flow over me, trying hard not to think of my new body and just focus on business.

I finally began to actually wash myself, soaping up my skin and getting the grime off. Most of my body had been protected from the worst of the blood and grime by the costume, but even the most protected parts still had to deal with the sweat and body odor.

Then I began to lather up my breasts and clean them, exploring them just a little as I did so. I ran my hands over them, feeling the nipples and the soft smooth skin. Then I reached down between my legs, wincing as I felt my new female equipment.

There was absolutely nothing erotic about my self-exploration. Instead, it felt sort of creepy and wrong. Because of that, I hurried through the exploration after doing just enough to satisfy my curiosity.

When I was finished washing up, I stepped out of the shower feeling a little more alive. With that feeling of being alive again, I was also aware of being thirsty and hungry as well. I’d been so caught up with everything else I hadn’t even noticed my body’s physical needs until now.

The first need I had to meet was to relieve myself. I sat on the toilet and tried to just do my business with as much clinical detachment as I could. Fortunately, the plumbing all worked about the same as what I was used to with the main difference being that I couldn’t just stand up to piss anymore. And when I was done, I felt the same relief as always.

“I’m sorry Amelia,” I said, feeling guilty again for invading her privacy like this. However, with the circumstances being what they were I didn’t exactly have a lot of choice. My own body had been killed so I had no doubt about the fact that I would be in this one for the rest of my life.

Next, I looked at myself in the mirror again, seeing that I looked a little better after the cleaning. I also noticed that my face was sunburned from lying out in the sun for who knows how many hours, though I suspected that my hair being over my face may have protected me from the worst of it.

Amelia always had a very nice body and being in it myself hadn’t made me notice that any less. Now that I was clean, I was able to appreciate that fact a little more.

I was now about 5 foot 8 with dark hair that went down to my shoulder blades. My body was firm and trim with great muscle tone, the kind of body possessed by a woman who spent a lot of time in the gym trying to stay in shape. I had great curves with D cup breasts that were nice and round as well as a little more firm than I would have guessed.

“You were so beautiful,” I whispered, tearing my eyes away from the mirror and feeling guilty again. Ever since I’d met up with the Seven, Amelia had been almost like a big sister to me. It felt wrong seeing her naked like this even if I was the one in her body.

I hadn’t given any thought about what to wear until now so didn’t have any clothes immediately on hand. So I wrapped myself in a towel and then made my way through the hall to Amelia’s room. I knew that she kept several changes of spare clothes there, both costumes and civilian clothes.

Everyone had a combo lock on their rooms to protect their privacy but I knew what all of them were. I went inside and looked around, deciding that I’d already invaded her privacy in more ways than I could count so a little more wouldn’t hurt. After all, I doubted that she cared anymore.

I looked through the closet but had absolutely no desire to put on one of her spare costumes. The very idea felt wrong. I might have her body but I had no intention of impersonating Vesper. Instead, I grabbed for her normal clothes, a dark red t-shirt, a pair of loose slacks, and a pair of running shoes. Of course, I’d need more than this.

“This is so wrong,” I told myself as I went into her underwear drawer and pulled out some panties. I reminded myself that this body had worn these very panties on numerous occasions so there was nothing wrong with this. It just made sense. That helped as I put on her panties and then tried for the bra. It took me a minute of fumbling with the bra before I was able to figure out how to get that on. “Stupid thing…”

A few minutes later, I was fully dressed and ready to get something to eat. I was starving and more than a little thirsty. I had lost a lot of blood and would need a lot of water to help me recover. In fact, I was a little surprised at how we’ll I’d been managing after the blood loss and wondered if maybe Amelia had some sort of low level enhanced endurance or healing ability to go with her telekinesis.

When I reached the kitchen, I poured myself a glass of water and downed it all before I even considered what I was going to eat. The water felt fantastic but I definitely wanted more. However, I could sip that a little more slowly while I looked for food.

The refrigerator wasn’t on the emergency power so had warmed up and the food inside was left suspect. However, there were other things around like bread, peanut butter, and dry cereal, not to mention some fruit. I was able to find myself a virtual feast.

I sat at the dinner table while I ate, fully aware of the empty seats around me. There were plenty of times I’d been here alone, eating by myself. However, all I could think of where the times I’d eaten with my friends and how I would never do so again.

I finished my meal but continued sitting at the table, feeling better physically but not emotionally. I was filled with a horrible sense of loss and confusion as I wondered what I was going to do now.

I was in a body that was not my own and knew that I would remain in this body for the rest of my life. Every time I looked in the mirror I would be reminded of Amelia and how she’d died.

As strange as it was, being in Amelia’s body was far from the worst part of my situation. The Seven had been my only friends and family. Without them, I was truly alone in the world. I’d lost them and the only real home I’d ever known. I felt truly and utterly lost with no sense of purpose and no hope for the future.

“Loki,” I spat out his named, thinking of the man who’d murdered my friends and had taken absolutely everything away from me.

The burning anger that had been bubbling under the surface burst out again as I thought of Loki. I felt a surge of pure and raw hatred for the man, a hatred that was more than deserved. I’d never hated anyone this much before in my life, not even one of my foster fathers who used to beat me. I’d never even imagined I could hate someone this much.

I looked up and at the chairs across the table from me and one of them suddenly went flying back and smashed against the wall. I was a little startled at that, enough that the rage receded a little. However, I immediately realized what had happened.

“I did that,” I exclaimed, thankful for the distraction.

For a moment, I stared at one of the other chairs and concentrated on it. It only took a second but that chair slid back, much more gently than the first. This time it was actually under my conscious control.

“I have Vesper’s powers,” I whispered. “I have her telekinesis…”

Of course, it made perfect sense that I’d have her powers. After all, I had her body. In fact, I realized that I’d unconsciously used them before but had been too caught up in my own anger to really notice it at the moment. I remembered screaming in rage and forcing the sand away from me, leaving me in a small crater. I’d been using these powers then too.

“I’m…I’m developed,” I said quietly.

For years I’d dreamed of developing powers of my own so I could actually join the Seven as an official member. However, I’d never imagined it happening like this. In spite of having finally gained the powers I’d dreamed off, I knew that I’d immediately give them up if it would bring back even one of the Seven.

“Loki,” I exclaimed again, narrowing my eyes as I thought about what I wanted to do to him.

I used my new telekinesis to reach out with my mind and pick up one of the chairs. It was easier than I would have thought and gave me a dark sense of satisfaction. That satisfaction increased as I suddenly threw it across the room and smashed it into the wall, imagining that it was Loki that I was tossing.

“I’m gonna get that fucker,” I nearly screamed, suddenly knowing that this was what I was going to do. Somehow, I was going to find him and kill him for what he’d done. I wasn’t going to rest until I’d made him pay.

Then I concentrated on the microwave oven on the counter and lifted it into the air with my mind. I stared at it intensely before suddenly smashing it into a wall.

Loki had inadvertently given him the very tool I needed to fight him. No, it was Vesper… It was Amelia who’d left me with the weapon I could use to avenge her murder.

Then I suddenly remembered that she hadn’t been the only one to leave me a weapon. I looked down at my metallic right arm, realizing that I’d been thinking of it as just some sort of strange prosthetic and had nearly forgotten that it was actually a weapon. Over the centuries, it had been in the form of numerous different weapons…but even when it had just looked like an umbrella it had still been very dangerous.

“A weapon,” I whispered, remembering that at various times it had been nearly every type of weapon imaginable from a sword to an umbrella. A year ago, the Umbrella had done a lot of research into its history which is how he’d eventually discovered its true alien origin. However, I’d never heard of it being anything like this. In fact, the most complicated I’d heard of it ever being was when it had turned into a pistol for one previous user.

On an impulse, I slammed my fist into the table and smashed a hole in it. I pulled my hand back and stared at it in surprise. I could feel things with my new arm though they were a bit dull and numb. However, I’d just hit the table as hard as I could and hadn’t felt any pain at all. I turned and punched the wall and put my fist right through it.

“It’s like having built in brass knuckles,” I muttered. It was impressive but I didn’t think it would do much good against Loki unless I could get right in his face. Still, the thought of slamming this fist into his face as hard as I could brought a cold smile to my lips.

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that I was going to make Loki pay. I was going to make him pay for each and every life he’d taken. I burned with the need for revenge and it seemed very appropriate that both Vesper and the Umbrella would help me get that revenge.

“But it won’t be enough,” I admitted reluctantly.

Loki had single handedly wiped out the entire Seven, and all of them had been far more skilled at using their powers than I was. As much as I wanted to hunt him down and kill him immediately, I was realistic enough to know that I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t skilled or powerful enough…not yet.

“I’ll get stronger,” I told myself firmly. “I’ll get better…”

When I'd awoken on the floor a short time ago my body had hurt like hell and I'd been nearly drained of energy. The shower and food had done wonders for my physical state but it was my anger and new sense of purpose which had done the most. Those gave me the energy and determination to focus on what I needed to do next. Without those, I would have been stumbling around lost and confused. Without those, I would have collapsed into a sobbing mess.

I went to the monitor room and took a seat in the captain's chair, noting that I didn't fit in it quite the same as I did before. However, I didn't take time to dwell on that since I knew that I'd have to get used to a lot of things being different. After all, I was several inches shorter than before, a lot lighter, and not to mention female.

The first thing I did was pull up the GPS so I could figure out where I was. I wasn't really surprised when I compared the coordinates against a map and found that I was in Africa. Loki had transported the entire headquarters right into the middle of the Sahara. I supposed I should be thankful it wasn't Antarctica or I would have already frozen to death.

Next, I brought up all the files we had on Loki. I was already very familiar with his file since I was the one who'd created it but I wanted a refresher on every detail. I didn't want any little thing to escape me. I read through the file and then watched all the video footage of the previous fights with him, replaying it several times.

I stared at the monitors in front of me with a burning rage until finally all of the monitors suddenly shattered at once. I blinked in surprise, realizing quickly what must have happened. I grimaced in self-disgust, knowing that I was going to have to learn to control this telekinesis. If I wasn't careful, I could probably do a lot of damage without meaning too. Right now, I wanted to make sure I saved every bit of that damage for Loki.

"There goes that idea," I grumbled as I got up, knowing that I couldn't use the computer anymore since all of the monitors had been destroyed.

Then as I got up, I noticed that the arm rest of my captain's chair was crushed where my metal hand had been resting. I stared at it for a moment, realizing that I'd been clutching the arm rest tightly while watching the videos footage. It appeared that my new hand could be even more destructive than I'd realized.

I held up my hand and stared at it, wondering what else it could do. After all, the artifact that it was made from was very versatile and full of surprises. Each had adapted to each of its previous wielders and often provided surprising abilities. For the Umbrella, the tip of the umbrella could turn into a blade, the whole thing could let him fly a little, and the handle of the umbrella had been known to stretch out so he could hook someone from a distance and then pull them back to him. I was certain that it had a few more surprises just waiting for me to discover them.

A moment later, I felt something a little strange from my metal hand, almost as if it was responding to my thoughts. My fingers began to lengthen and become thinner as I watched, morphing in shape until all of them were three inches longer than before and had become nasty looking claws. I wiggled my fingers experimentally then turned around and swiped my new claws against the wall, delighted when I'd sliced through the metal covering with ease.

"Oh yes," I told myself, smiling coldly as I envisioned using these on Loki. "These will do nicely..."

After that, I concentrated on having my hand change back to normal and it responded. The claws shortened and reformed back into normal looking fingers, or at least as normal looking as possible since they were made of shiny black metal. I wiggled my fingers again then clenched my hand into a fist, knowing that I would have to learn everything I was capable of before I was ready to face Loki. A large part of me wanted to attack him and kill him immediately, though a more rational part insisted that I had to be ready if I actually wanted to succeed.

With that in mind, I went to the weight room and began practicing with my telekinesis. I began by remembering a conversation I'd once had with Vesper when I'd asked her what it was like being able to move things with her mind. She'd talked about it in detail, saying that she often used an imaginary hand in order to focus. With that in mind, I imagined an invisible hand reaching out and grabbing a single weight. I was able to lift it into the air with ease though I found it was a little more difficult to just hold it in place. It took more concentration to slowly move it where I wanted it to go while keeping it under firm control.

"Control," I muttered, easily lifting another weight into the air and just tossing it across the room. It was easy to do that but the real effort was keeping my link to the item I was lifting and keeping full control over it. "At least throwing things around is easy."

I already had an extremely good idea of what Vesper had been capable of and thought I knew her limits pretty well. That gave me a certain confidence as approached my testing since I already knew what the results would be. Because I knew what she could do with her powers, I knew that I could do the same things. I just needed a little more practice to do them as well.

I began by lifting heavier and heavier weights and slowly moving them around the room. I found, that just as I already knew, I could lift about three times my own weight before I began to feel any real strain. That was three times my current weight rather than my original. Any further weight I added after this point quickly became harder and harder until I finally found my limit. Of course, I already knew what it was but there was a difference between knowing and experiencing it. I have seen Vesper lift even more, but it took a lot of effort on her part and she'd always paid the price.

"Damn headache," I muttered, having forgotten about that downside of Vesper's powers until now.

I rubbed my temple, wincing at the headache that was starting to form. When you did a lot of physical exercise it usually led to sore muscles, especially if you really pushed your limits. Vesper's power...now my power worked the same way. If she'd used her powers too much it would leave her with a headache and if she pushed her limits too hard it could cause some nasty migraine. I knew that I'd have to be careful about that.

Since I didn't want to burn myself out just yet, I stopped working with my telekinesis and tried out my metal arm. It was very strong compared to the rest of me and I could do some serious damage with a punch. Of course, I could also turn my fingers into claws and do some nasty slicing work too. I tried it out both ways against some training dummies, getting a little more comfortable with what it could do, though off course, every time I punched or sliced the dummies, I imagined it was Loki I was doing it to.

Once my headache receded, I went back to practicing with the telekinesis. This time, I focused on trying to move multiple objects at the same time. It was challenging to split my concentration this way but it helped to imagine several invisible hands reaching out and holding them. I was careful not to push myself too much since I wanted to avoid the headaches at the moment. However, I knew that sooner or later I'd be pushing myself as hard as I could since I would need every ounce of power at my disposal if I wanted to take out Loki.

When I was finished experimenting with my new abilities, I considered what I was going to do next. I knew that the one thing I couldn't do was stay here in the headquarters. For one, I was in the middle of the Sahara so the temperature was getting a bit hot. And then there was the horrible smell coming from the rec room, a stench which I knew would only get worse as the temperature rose. Of course, those were only the physical reasons. The emotional reasons to get away from the scene of my friends slaughter were much more powerful.

I decided that I was going to leave here as soon as I could. The memories of my friends and what I'd seen happen to them was a crushing weight that I was able to ignore at the moment because of the distraction my new purpose gave me. I had a lot of great memories of this place but one fight with Loki was enough to ruin it all for me. Of course, there were several things I had to do before leaving.

I went into the rec room and gagged at the smell which was coming from all around me. I might have removed Morass and Armory from here, but their blood was still all over the place and was getting very ripe. The smell was horrible but was nothing compared to the dark emotions.

"Loki," I hissed, turning to the rage which helped me stay focused. Without that I had no idea what I'd do.

After looking at the hole in the wall and then the mess of the room, I considered whata nightmare it would be to clean this place. Then again, I had absolutely no intention of cleaning the headquarters now. That had been my job when the Seven were here but now I was left with no job and no purpose but to avenge them.

My eyes settled on the overturned pool table that had two of the legs broken off and then I stared at the pool balls scattered across the floor, most of which were sitting in pools of blood. I reached over and picked up one of the pool balls, scowling as I crushed it in my metal hand. It crumbled with ease and I let the remains fall back to the floor, just as shattered and irreparable as my life.

Next, I turned my attention to the task at hand and used my new power to move the pool table to cover the hole in the wall. Of course, that wasn't nearly good enough so I piled all the rest of the wrecked furniture behind it until the hole was sealed. This would keep the sand from pouring in as well as keep out any animals that might be out there.

Then I stared down at one of the clean spots of the room, the very place where I'd placed Traveler's nicely folded cloak and Hellshot's bow. I stared at the two objects for a long moment before slowly going to pick them up. Vesper and the Umbrella had both left me weapons that I could use against Loki...but they weren't the only ones.

I picked up Hellshot's bow and held it carefully. It was made of a hard and dense white material that looked like ceramic, though I knew that it was actually carved from a demon's rib bone. This bow had been passed down through Hellshot's family…through Ben’s family from father to son for generations, though sadly, Ben had been the last of his line...the last of his family. There was no one he could have passed it on to. I also knew that it was a very powerful weapon, though unfortunately, it was one that I probably wouldn't be able to use.

Ben had once told me that he'd spent a full year learning to master his bow. It had taken him that long to learn how to summon the hellfire and control it. Until you actually knew how to control it, it was extremely dangerous to try using. As useful as it would be against Loki, I couldn't afford to spend a whole year training with this.

Traveler's cloak on the other hand, was my ticket back to civilization...and to Loki. Traveler brought me with him through it a few times and I had a pretty good understanding of how it worked. I was pretty confident in my ability to use it.

"Seven dead friends," I said quietly, thinking about how Morass and Armory had been newcomers to the team and that I hadn't known them nearly as well as the others. Still, I grieved for their loss and knew that they deserved to be avenged as well. "He'll pay for what he did to you..."

Then I turned to the device from Armory's lab which I'd left in the rec room. There was a disk in the back of it that was about four inches across and had a smooth blue gem on the surface. This was the important part of the device, the part that held the folded space pocket where my friend’s bodies were stored. I didn't need the rest of the device anymore, only this. I took the disk, cloak, and bow and left the rec room.

I was going to be leaving the headquarters soon, but before I went, I wanted to make sure I brought everything that I could use. I'd already been making a mental list, discarding anything that I couldn't easily carry myself.

First off, I needed something to wear, something in the line of a costume. I'd been around heroes and villains long enough to know that a costume wasn't just a fashion statement or declaration of your developed identity. It was even more than a way to protect your real identity. The real purpose of a costume was to act as a uniform, to identify you on the battlefield as a combatant rather than a noncombatant. In this business, neither hero nor villain would usually take you seriously unless you wore a uniform to mark yourself as such. And as of now, I was through sitting on the sidelines. As of now, I was definitely a combatant.

I went to the costume room, a small room that was set up with everything needed for the Seven to make replacements for the costumes that were damaged in battle. I had absolutely no intention of dressing up as Vesper and needed something of my own. However, I didn't feel like I actually had any real identity of my own, nothing that demanded any particular theme. Then my eyes settled on some of the blank costumes hanging from a rack.

A blank costume was just what it sounded like, a one piece body suit of a solid flat color. These were used to try on the costumes and make sure the sizes fit and were flexible enough before a real costume was then made. There were blank costumes present for most of the Seven, including Vesper. The blank in her size was a solid flat black that covered the entire body from the neck down. I picked the costume up and held it against my body, already knowing that it was the right size.

"A blank," I whispered to myself, thinking that it was appropriate. After all, I felt like a blank now.

I quickly undressedand just stood there in my underwear, feeling self conscious. I looked down at my breasts and winced, once again thinking that Vesper wouldn’t have appreciated me ogling her body.

“But I think she’d understand under the circumstances,” I muttered, cupping my breasts for a moment and then shaking my head. “Stay focused…”

I was about to put the blankon when I looked down at my replacement arm, comparing its black metallic color with the flat black of the costume. The costume was full sleeved and even covered the hands so this arm wouldn't be visible at all once I put it on. There was something that just felt wrong about that. Of course, being fully covered like that might make it more difficult to stretch my fingers into claws or use any other abilities the arm might have, but that wasn't really it.

"This is a reminder," I told myself.

It was a reminder of what Loki had done and why I was going after him. I then looked down at myself and the two breasts which pushed out from my chest. Of course, these were reminders as well. The truth was, what Loki had done to me personally was nasty...but that was only the least of his crimes. However, my own physical changes were reminders that would stick with me no matter what I did.

With a deep scowl, I went to work cutting the right arm off of the costume. It was a little more difficult than you'd guess since even if it was just a blank, it had been made with the same material that that the Seven usually used for their standard costumes. That meant it was light weight and flexible but that it was also designed to keep you warm in cold weather, cool in hot weather, and act as a lightweight armor that could stop small arms fire from a short distance.

Once I'd finished modifying the costume, I began climbing into it, feeling a strange mixture of determination and nervousness as I did. I'd been dreaming of putting on my own costume for years, though certainly not a blank one and certainly not like this. I sealed the costume with the small concealed zipper and could barely tell that there was any opening at all. From the neck down, it was all skin tight black material...except for my right arm which was black metal instead.

Then I saw a few more things that I could use. I grabbed a white belt and several small white pouches that I snapped onto each side so I could carry things like money if I needed to. I put the belt around my waist and cinched it, then took one more look around and decided there was nothing more I could use in here.

Next, I thought I could use more weapons and the best place to find weapons is in an armory…or in Armory’s lab. I went back to her lab and looked around, having no idea what most of the weapons on the shelves were…at least the ones that looked complete.

“She had all the best ones on her,” I sighed, knowing that Armory kept a nice arsenal stored in the pocket spaces of her armor. Unfortunately, there was no way of getting to them now so I’d just have to make do with whatever she had in here. “There has to be something…”

As I was looking over Armory’s work station, I saw something that made me pause. I knew that she’d been working on some upgrades to her armor though she’d barely finished any of it. However, one of the pieces she had finished was sitting right there.

I reached over and picked up an arm guard, a bracer that covered the left forearm. I knew that this one was complete though the matching one for the right arm was still only partially assembled. Still, I thought that this would do fine.

I held her the bracer up for a better look and examined it. It was smooth gray metal, the same color as much of Armory’s armor. However, there were three smooth round gemstones set in it in a line, gemstones almost identical to the one in the disk I’d removed from the stasis device but each was just a little smaller.

“Three folded space pockets,” I said as I ran my finger over the stones. This was definitely an upgrade from her old armor since her old arm pieces only had a single gemstone in each. This would have drastically increased the amount of weapons she could have carried. “I can use this…”

I snapped the arm guard in place around my left arm and then adjusted it slightly so it fit more comfortable. Then I looked around the lab again for some weapons I could store in it.

The first useful weapon I found was a large energy rifle that I remember seeing Armory use just last week. I held it on one hand and then pushed one of the gems on the wrist guard. It began to glow blue and as I pressed the rifle against it, the entire rifle vanished. The color of the gem had changed just slightly, an indication that the folded space pocket was now full.

The next weapon I found was a blue and silver sphere about the size of a soft ball, one that was actually a form of grenade. I would normally have passed this up except that I knew exactly what this one was and that it had very special meaning.

Armory had been quite excited about creating this grenade and had talked about it a lot. It had been something she’d worked on with Morass, a way of duplicating his powers to a degree. She’d taken some of the thick tar that Morass created and had stored it in a pocket of folded space inside this grenade.

“Now I have weapons from Armory and Morass,” I said quietly. Of course, the one from Morass could be used only one but it made me feel better to just have it. It made me feel as though he was helping me to avenge his murder.

I left Armory’s lab and went next to the memorial room, not expecting to find anything there that I could use only memories that I wanted a final look at. I looked at the pictures on the walls and the mannequins with the costumes belonging to Echo and the High Flying Flag.

“Goodbye Matt,” I whispered. “Goodbye Michelle.”

My intentions had only been to say goodbye to the memories in this room and see if there was anything I needed to take with me, but then I saw the throwing stars in Matt’s case. There were a half dozen of them on display, weapons that he used to use all the time. I knew that these would be fairly useless to me when compared to the other weapons I’d acquired, but I opened the case and took them anyway.

“Now I have you by my side too,” I said, slipping the throwing stars into one of the pouches on my belt.

I took one more look around the memorial room, feeling tears running down my cheeks as I did so. I wiped them away, telling myself that there would be time for tears late. I couldn’t afford that now. I couldn’t afford to be weak. I focused on my anger…on my hatred of Loki and then turned to leave.

It dawned on me that I would need a few things besides just weapons so I went back to Amelia’s quarters, grabbing a duffle bag on the way as well as the clothes I’d taken off a short time ago. This hadn’t been Amelia’s real home but she’d left extra clothes here to change out of so I gathered up more of those as well as a few other things that might be of use.

After this, I went through my friend’s quarters one at a time, taking any money I found there but otherwise leaving them intact. However, that changed when I reached Landspeed’s room…Karen’s room.

I looked around Karen’s room, realizing that she was the only one of those who’d been killed who hadn’t left me something I could use. I had to fight back more tears, knowing that I had to have something of hers as well. I had to have something to feel that she was fighting by my side.

My eyes settled on Karen’s spare Landspeed costume which was hanging from a hook on the wall. My eyes went to her belt, or more specifically, to her belt buckle. It was a disk about four inches across, a circle of blue with a blue number seven in the middle, all on a white field. This was the team logo, a symbol that most of the Seven had kept on their costumes.

I removed the belt buckle and held it in my hands, feeling my heart jump. I’d dreamed about wearing this symbol since I was fourteen, of being a member of the team. I clutched the disk and was vaguely aware that things in the room were starting to shake due to my telekinesis.

“I can’t wear this,” I whispered, feeling a surge of intense shame. “I don’t deserve to wear this…”

For nearly a minute, I just stood there staring at the buckle. This was the symbol of the Seven, the symbol of the team that had just been completely and utterly slaughtered. As much as I’d wished otherwise, I’d never been a real member of that time. I was just the mascot.

“So why am I the only one to survive?” I choked out as the tears came again. “How come I’m the only one when all I am is the God damn mascot…?”

Then I screamed out and suddenly everything in the room slammed against the walls, smashing and cracking under the force of my power. By the time I was done, nearly everything in Karen’s room had been destroyed.

“I’m so sorry Karen,” I said, taking one more look at the team logo before I slipped it into one of the pouches on my belt. I had no right to wear this symbol but perhaps it would make me feel like Landspeed was by my side.

The last room I went into was my own and it was the strangest to do so. I looked around, realizing that I was the only one who’d lived here at the quarters permanently. This had not just been a place to store a change of clothes like it had been for the others, this was my home.

As I looked around, I realized that there was only one thing in this room that I wanted. There was only one thing in this room that I needed. I picked up my photo album which contained pictures of my friends during better times. I slipped it into the duffle bag and then began backing out of the room.

I turned around to give my room one final look before whispering, “Good bye Everett…”

It was with a dark feeling that I realized Everett Chase was dead along with the Seven. I’d seen him get killed with my own eyes. I’d moved his body with my own hands. The young man who’d been the Seven’s mascot was gone forever.

“And who am I?” I quietly asked myself as I left the room.

I wasn’t Everett…not anymore. In spite of having Amelia’s body, I wasn’t her either. I wasn’t even a member of the Seven. I was nobody. I was just a ghost…a leftover…a remnant of the Seven. I was nothing more than a walking piece of unfinished business.

I turned and walked away from my old room with a feeling of emptiness inside me. I was nothing and nobody. I was walking vengeance. That was all I had left. That was all I was.

Seconds later, I reached the spot just outside the rec room where I’d the cloak, bow and disk. I didn’t say a word as I stored Hellshot’s bow into one of my folded space pockets. I couldn’t use it yet but certainly wasn’t leaving it here.

I stared at the disk that contained my friend’s bodies…that contained my old body. I snapped that onto my belt, right in place of the belt buckle. It almost looked as though that was what it had been intended for.

Then I opened the Traveler’s cloak and hesitated only a second before putting it on. I immediately felt a faint chill and then a comforting protection settle around me. In a way, it felt almost like the Traveler was now watching my back.

I pulled the cloak tightly around me and concentrated as I called upon its powers. It reacted to my thoughts and space began to fold around me, taking me away from here and the slaughter that had occurred here. However, I knew that no matter where I went, the nightmares would follow.

“I’m coming for you Loki,” I said firmly, believing this with every fiber of my being. “I’m coming to kill you.”

I stood in the middle of a vast desolate landscape that stretched out in every direction around me for as far as the eye could see. The ground was a very flat hard packed clay, and no matter where I looked, I couldn’t see a single hill or variation from this. The sky itself was all a dull gray with no distinct clouds or even a visible sun. And even the air felt dull and wrong, almost stale.

This was another dimension, the dimension that the Traveler’s cloak was connected to. The Traveler had called this place the Empty, a name that was more than a little accurate since there didn’t seem to be a single thing in here besides me. More accurately, the Traveler called this place by some Japanese word that I couldn’t pronounce but he’d told me that it translated to the Empty.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time I’d been in the Empty. The Traveler had brought me through here on several occasions so I knew from previous experience what to expect. I could choose any one direction and travel in it for a year straight and not run into a single change in the landscape.

“But it’s not real,” I reminded myself. The Traveler had once told me that our human minds were incapable of comprehending what this place was truly like so this was just how our minds translated the input in order to make it more understandable.

The reason that the Traveler’s cloak was so useful wasn’t just that it could protect the wearer from a lot of damage. Its true value was in being able to use the Empty to travel through. Space didn’t work the same way here that it did in the real world so walking just a short distance here was the equivalent of walking a great distance there.

I closed my eyes and tried remembering everything I knew about how the cloak worked and then concentrated on where I wanted to go back in the real world. The cloak responded and I could sense the direction I needed to walk in order to get there the most easily, and I could even sense the distance vaguely.

I walked about two hundred yards until the cloak told me that I was where I needed to be. Then I took a deep breath and tried to stretch my senses across the boundary between the worlds and the cloak responded by allowing my vision of this world to fade while I could see the corresponding location in the real world.

At the moment, I was now standing where the Seven’s headquarters had been located, or at least that was the perspective of my vision since I was still in the Empty. I smiled faintly, knowing that the Traveler had used this trick of peering through dimensions to spy on enemies in the past. However, there was no sound coming through, only vision.

I looked around, seeing a small crater where the building had been and noting that it was full of water. Of course, that made sense. With the building suddenly disappearing, the water pipes would be severed and would just pour out until someone shut off the flow further down the line.

“There’s nothing here,” I whispered, taking several steps in order to get a better look at one spot, but I suddenly found myself looking at what appeared to be the middle of the ocean. “Damn,” I muttered, taking several steps back so I was in the corresponding location again. With space here being so random, I’d have to be very precise about where I crossed.

At the moment though, I had no intention of crossing back to the real world…at least not here. I’d just seen with my own eyes that there was nothing left where the headquarters had been. Of course, I hadn’t expected there to be anything there but I had wanted to see with my own eyes.

I shifted my vision fully back to the empty and then concentrated on my next destination. I could sense several places that could lead there or at least close to there and then the cloak narrowed it down to the one that would be the shortest trip for me.

This time I had to walk nearly twice the distance before I reached my destination. I stretched my senses through the dimensions and saw that I was in the right spot. I then pushed my way back into the real world, though I used a trick the Traveler often did to keep the portal open under the bottom of my feet. The result was that I was back in the real world, but for all intents and purposes, I was standing in mid-air, about four feet above the ground. The truth was that my feet were still firmly planted on the ground, just the ground of the Empty.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered, jumping down to the ground and closing the portal.

I was now standing in the back yard behind a small house. There was a wooden fence around the yard that would help keep people from seeing me but I knew I wouldn’t want to stay out here for long. I looked around, knowing that there were other houses close bye but not so close as to invade the privacy, which of course had been the point of choosing this house.

This was a safe house that the Seven had set up as a backup meeting place in case of emergencies. If this didn’t count as an emergency, I had no idea of what did.

I quickly went to the back door and let myself in with a hidden combination lock. Once I was inside, I locked the door behind me again and let out a sigh of relief.

I didn’t say a word as I walked through the house, making sure that everything was still in order. The kitchen was stocked with dry and canned foods and there was plenty of toilet paper in the bath room. Of course, I had expected it all to be there since I was the one to stock everything. It was one of my responsibilities to clean the safe house one a month and make sure everything was still ready, or at least it had been.

“Now for the important part,” I said as I went to hallway and opened the secret panel in the wall to reveal some stairs going down.

The hidden basement was the part that had really been set up for emergencies. There were shelves with spare costumes and spare civilian clothes for each of the Seven members. There were stacks of emergency food rations, water, and medical supplies as well as other things that might be of use.

“Home sweet home,” I spat out bitterly.

I needed a place to stay while I looked for Loki and I certainly couldn’t stay at the headquarters. As far as I was concerned, the headquarters had become little more than a mausoleum. That meant the safe house was the perfect place. It was already set up with most of what I’d need, including a stash of extra cash.

I took one more look around the basement to make sure everything I needed really was there. While I was doing this, I caught sight of myself in a large mirror which hung from the wall. I stared for a moment, feeling almost as though I had something caught in my throat.

I had the black costume with the white cloak which really seemed to go well with it, especially since the hood was up, hiding my hair and obscuring my face. I didn’t look anything like myself which was to be expected, but dressed like this, I didn’t even look like Vesper. I was somewhat thankful for that because it made it easier to ignore the truth. However, it wasn’t enough. The mirror shattered and I turned away.

A minute later, I was back upstairs and leaning against the wall for support. I’d been exhausted and sore when I woke up in the hallway floor, and though the shower and food had helped immensely, I’d also pushed myself far more than I should have. It was all catching up to me fast.

“I can’t rest now,” I said with a yawn as I sat down on the couch. “I’ve got too much to do…” Then after a moment, I added, “Maybe just a few minutes…” However, just a few minutes later I was deep asleep.

It had been four days since I'd come to the safe house and I was feeling more than a little frustrated. I'd spent nearly every minute either training to control my new abilities better or searching for Loki online. Unfortunately, I hadn't found a sign of him yet, at least not any fresh ones.

I sat in front of the computer with several web pages open including one for a new site that specialized in tracking the dealings of various developed. In a way, this particular site was almost like the paparazzi of the developed world, posting pictures and reports of the latest developed sightings. If Loki made any kind of big public appearance, there was a good chance it would show up here or one of the other sites before long.

In the background, I had the TV on to a local news channel though I was only half paying attention to it. They were doing a piece about how a warehouse mysteriously disappeared and how now it was being learned that it was the headquarters of the Seven.

"If they only knew what happened," I muttered bitterly.

It suddenly struck me that I was the only one besides Loki who knew the answer of what had happened. I could to those news people and give them all the answers they wanted, though of course I had absolutely no intention of doing so. I'd never been particularly fond of reporters. After all, I'd seen too many times when they'd tell a story about how some hero had saved the world...or at least a lot of lives, then a week later those same reporters would be doing a story about how incompetent the hero was because he couldn't save everybody.

"Parasites," I spat out.

After a minute, I got up and decided to stretch and take a little break. I walked to the front room window and looked out, noticing a teenage girl standing out front on the sidewalk. She looked to be about thirteen with light brown hair and was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. I'd seen her walking past before and figured she was one of the neighbors and lived in the nearest house.

I frowned slightly and muttered, "The old safe house had a lot more privacy..."

The old safe house was superior in nearly every way. It had been larger, had been further away from the road, and had more trees around it to provide more privacy. Unfortunately, when Golden Angel...Michelle had turned to the dark side and became the Fallen, the old safe house had been compromised so we'd had to replace it with a new one as well as change all of our security codes.

For a moment I just watched the girl out the window, feeling vaguely suspicious. Then I had to remind myself that she was just some neighbor girl and not any kind of a threat. Still, it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on her just in case she was more than she seemed.

Just then, I noticed that the news on TV was no longer talking about the missing Seven headquarters but had moved onto a different story, one that the subtitle said was breaking news and live footage. I just glanced over the screen at first until I realized what they were showing. There were three super villains making a scene while a chopper recorded them from a safe distance. I immediately realized that this was happening in Seattle because all three of the villains were standing on top of the Space Needle. It was an odd looking building that resembled a UFO on top of a tower or even something straight out of the Jetsons. It was very distinctive and therefore telegraphed their location like little else.

"The Triad," I said, recognizing the three villains with a single glance.

The Triad were fairly small time as far as villains went, being more interested in theft, extortion, and just straight out destruction of property than in anything as ambitious as world domination. In fact, they were in the business more for the thrills and excitement than anything else. Normally, the Seven would step in and put a quick stop to whatever it is they were up to, though unfortunately, this time things were going to be different.

"Damn," I muttered in disappointment. I'd been hoping to see something about Loki, not these clowns.

I turned away from the TV in disgust then went back to the computer to keep searching for Loki. In the past, I would have cared about the Triad making a large public spectacle like this and I would have immediately notified the Seven. However, things had changed and there were no Seven to go charging in to the rescue.

"None of my business," I told myself grimly, sure that sooner or later some hero or another would show up to stop them.

Of course, the Seven had been the only real heroes who made their base in the Pacific Northwest and it could be quite awhile before anyone else showed up. By the time anyone did show up, IF they did, the Triad would probably have gotten away.

"Not my business," I reminded myself again. "I'm no hero..." My dreams of being a hero had died along with my friends. Now, I just had to focus on finding Loki.

However, I couldn't resist turning and watching the news, curious about what the Triad were up to this time. Then the news anchor said that the Triad were threatening to destroy the Space Needle unless they were paid a three million dollar ransom. Somehow, I didn't think the city would be happy losing their landmark like that.

"Idiots," I muttered, not at all surprised by the Triad's latest bit of trouble. In fact, I suspected that the money was only their secondary goal. Knowing what I did of the Triad, my guess was that they were actually trying to get the Seven to show up for another fight. For those three, that would probably be more important than the cash. "Damn."

After a minute, I stood up and made a decision. In spite of having a costume and powers, I wasn't a hero. I didn't even have any kind of code name. However, I felt that I had to do something even if just because it was what any one of the Seven would have done. And besides, I knew that I'd need the practice of fighting for real if I wanted to really be ready for Loki.

Since I'd been sitting around in my civilian clothes, I rushed to get changed into something more appropriate. I threw on my spandex costume as quickly as I could and locked both my belt and wrist bracer in place. Then I finally put on the Traveler's cloak, feeling its power flowing over me as I pulled the hood over my head.

I looked down at myself, wondering what other people would think upon seeing me like this. After all, this would be my first time being out in public in this outfit. However, I quickly shoved that thought aside and stepped into the Empty.

It took me several minutes to travel through the Empty to the spot where it intersected with my destination. I stepped out of the Empty and into the real world just a few feet above the top of the Space Needle. The bottom of my feet were still firmly planted on the ground of the Empty since I could be sure of my footing and geta chance to look around better.

The Triad, as their name suggested, consisted of three members. The first was a tall and muscular man with short cropped reddish brown hair. The second was a slender man with shaggy reddish brown hair that was nearly the same shade as the first ones. The third member was a woman with long blonde hair that had obviously come from a bottle. All three wore costumes that were nearly identical in design except that each had a different primary color. The big man wore a spandex costume from his neck down that was red and white, the slender man wore one that was green and white, and the woman's was blue and white.

The Triad didn't bother using any kind of individual code names so the Seven had just referred to them by the primary color of their costumes. They were siblings with one of them possessing enhanced strength and invulnerability, one of them being able to fly and turn intangible, and the last one being able to fire blasts of destructive energy. However, what made them difficult to deal with was the fact that you couldn't tell which of them possessed which set of powers. They could trade powers with each other... even in the middle of combat.

It only took a moment for one of them to notice me standing there. "Look," Blue exclaimed, sounding more excited at my presence than

"Is that the Traveler?" Green asked as he stared at me with a confused look on his face.

"No you idiot," Red responded. "That's a chick."

All three of them looked around as though expecting more and then they turned their attention back to me with looks of disappointment on each of their faces. I'd watched countless super hero battles and had been caught up in more than a couple, but this was the first time that I was actually the one with the power...where I was the one who would have to do all the heavy lifting

I was trying to decide what I should do when Blue started the attack by firing a blast of orange energy at me from her hands. I pulled the cloak tighter around me and her blast hit the cloak, immediately burned a large hole through the material and then continued going right into the Empty. I looked down and watched as the hole in the cloak sealed right and looked as though it had never been damaged.

I gave up my footing in the Empty and dropped to the top of the Space Needle, knowing that I'd have to be careful because we were very high above the ground and there wasn't a lot of room to fight up here. Green charged at me and threw a punch which I reached up and caught with my metal arm. The force of the impact jarred my shoulder though the arm had somehow absorbed most of the impact. Now I knew that Green was the one with the enhanced strength...and invulnerability.

"What...?" Green blinked in surprise.

Then he went to hit me again with his other hand and I winced, knowing that I couldn't trade punches with someone who had super strength. Instead, I used my telekinesis to throw him away from me...right off the edge of the building. He would have fallen all the way to the ground if he hadn't suddenly stopped in mid air and then floated up to smirk at me.

A moment later, Red came at me so I was guessing he was the one with the strength and invulnerability now. I wasn't about to risk a hand to hand fight with him while he had those powers so I just skipped that part and telekinetically threw him over the edge. He screamed as he fell, unable to switch powers with Green again without making Green fall. Of course, I knew that Red was invulnerable so would probably survive the fall with no more than a bruise at most.

Blue fired another blast of energy at me and I jumped to the side to avoid it. My cloak might divert any of the blasts that hit it to the Empty, but if she hit any of my body when it wasn't covered by the cloak then I'd be toast. While I was doing this, Green flew straight at me and punched me hard, driving me back and off the edge of the building.

I screamed as I plunged towards the ground but remembered that Vesper had been able to fly by using her telekinesis on herself. That meant that I could fly too. I struggled to control my fear and focus my concentration and it worked. I was able to control my own movement and slowed my descent until I stopped movement and hovered in the air just ten feet above the ground.

Red was already on the ground and was just climbing out of a small crater that he’d smashed into the concrete when he hit. Suddenly, I was hit from behind and went flying into the ground, using my telekinesis to dull the impact. I rolled to the side and saw that Green had just attacked me again and was now floating in the air with a smirk.

“I’ve got a surprise for you bitch,” Red called out and suddenly fired a blast of energy at me.

I quickly swept my cloak up in front of me and it took the blast and protected me. However, Red continued firing more blasts and sooner or later he was going to get lucky and actually hit me. I didn’t give him the chance though and used my telekinesis to send him flying back.

Then there was suddenly a loud ‘boom’ a short distance away and I snapped around to see that Blue had jumped off the top of the Space Needle, using the invulnerability to keep her safe as she smashed into the ground. She stood back up with a smirk on her face and began coming towards me.

“Come on boys,” Blue told her brothers. “This is a job for a woman…”

Blue tore a light post from the ground and tried swinging it at me but I used my power to lift myself out of the way. I was definitely having a very bad feeling about this, remembering how difficult these three had often made it on the Seven. They were low level baddies but their ability to exchange powers at will made them hard to deal with.

“Time to pull out the heavy firepower,” I muttered, reaching for one of the blue gems on my arm guard. A second later, the large energy rifle I’d taken from Armory’s lab was in my right hand.

I held it in both hands to keep it steady as I fired a blast of red energy right at Blue. She was sent back and her costume looked scorched but she was unharmed. Then I turned and fired at Red but the blast went right through him. He’d obviously switched powers again and now and now had the flight and invulnerability.

“Damn,” I spat out, turning and firing next at Green, though as with Blue before him, it scorched his costume but didn’t seem to really hurt him.

“Look at that,” Green exclaimed. “She’s got like all the powers of the Seven rolled into one…”

Blue just grinned, “Then where’s her magic umbrella?”

“Right here,” I exclaimed, shifting the rifle to my left hand while I morphed the fingers of my right into claws. I then fired a blast of energy at Green while simultaneously leaping at Red.

“Will you stop that,” Green snapped as the blast hit him. “That stings.” At the same time, my claw slash went right through Red who just smirked. Then a moment later, he suddenly punched me. It hurt like hell but didn’t have any superhuman strength behind it, just the normal strength of a large and strong man.

“This isn’t working,” I muttered, putting the energy rifle back to the gem and watching it vanish.

The rifle was pretty powerful but I couldn’t seem to actually hit any of them without them being able to adjust. Since it was large and awkward to wield, I figured I could use my free hands and mobility a little more.

“Have you got any more?” Blue asked, firing a blast of energy at me while I jumped to the side and telekinetically pushed her aside.

Green rushed forward and grabbed my right arm in an iron grip that I couldn’t get away from. I could feel him squeezing it enough that if it had been flesh and bone my arm would have been crushed. He seemed surprised when I didn’t scream in pain.

“Let me go,” I demanded, trying to push him away from me with my telekinesis but he wouldn’t let go.

Just then, my arm began to shift and change again, though not under my control. My fingers sort of melted together and my arm stretched out longer, letting me pull further away from Green while he still had a firm grip on me. I was shocked to realize that my arm was turning into a long black tentacle. Just then, Green seemed no longer able to holding onto my arm and I slipped it right out of his grip.

“Oh shit,” I muttered, half amazed by what my metal arm had done and half horrified.

Then as I thought of this, my arm pulled back and reformed back into an arm, much to my relief. I would have hated to have my arm stuck as a long tentacle permanently.

For a brief moment, I was amazed as I considered everything my metal arm was capable of. The artifact it was made from could do some absolutely incredible things and I couldn’t help but think that it was being wasted as a sword, axe…or even umbrella. I couldn’t help but wondering if maybe this was a little closer to what it had originally been created for.

I didn’t have time to dwell on my arm though as I had three villains surrounding me. I grimaced in frustration, throwing my cloak up in front of me to protect from another energy blast. It was hard taking them out when two of them could be effectively protected from any of my attacks at any one time. If I attacked one of them then they would immediately exchange powers to protect my target.

Then I suddenly had an idea and reached into one of my belt pouches, pulling out the white throwing stars. Only one of them was vulnerable to damage at any one time but there was a way around that. I could attack all three of them at once.

I threw the throwing stars out at my opponents, using my telekinesis to add extra force to them much the way the High Flying Flag used to with his own powers. The shuriken bounced of Green and went right through Blue but Red screamed as one of them went right through his leg.

“Gotcha,” I exclaimed.

Then I grinned coldly, knowing that I had one trick I could do with the throwing stars that Matt never had. I could control them after I threw them too.

Six throwing starts flew around me, going at each of the Triad at the same time. Once again, Red took the cut, this time to his arm. Green tried jumping between me and Red but it didn’t do much good since I could move the stars around him.

“And to think,” I muttered, “I never thought the stars would actually be useful…” Then I quietly whispered, “Thank you Matt.”

“That’s not fair,” Blue protested, obviously frustrated.

“NOT FAIR?” I demanded, suddenly envisioning Loki teleporting into our headquarters and slaughtering all my friends while I could do nothing but watch. I snarled in rage and yelled out, “YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT UNFAIR IS!”

I sent the throwing stars all towards Red and Green then suddenly snapped around and punched Blue before they had a chance to switch powers again. She went flying back, gasping in pain as she grabbed for her face.

“JEN,” Red screamed.

I sent several throwing stars flying straight at Blue and they bounced right off her as she gained the invulnerability power. At the same time, Red charged at me again, having just given up the strength and invulnerability to protect his sister, though he was obviously relying on being larger and stronger than me anyway. Of course, he was right in that he was stronger than me but I certainly wasn’t helpless, even without using my powers. I’d been trained in self-defense by several members of the Seven and knew how to take care of myself.

Red punched at me as hard as he could but I grabbed his arm and shifted position. I drove his face right into the ground and then pulled his arm back until I heard the snap of his wrist breaking.

“YOU BITCH,” Blue screamed, getting to her feet and tearing another light pole from the ground and swinging it at me. However, I used my telekinesis to grab Green and throw him right at her. She dropped the light pole in order to try catching him.

Red grimaced in pain as he got back to his feet, holding his broken wrist and glaring at me with an expression of hatred. Not only did I break his wrist but I’d sliced him good several times with the throwing stars.

A moment later, Red shot at me with another blast of energy. I swept my cloak up in front of me again and then charged straight at him, dropping the cloak when it was safe and then punching him with my metal fist and dropping him.

Blue came at me again, looking more than a little furious and still bleeding from her nose. “I’ll break every bone in your body,” she exclaimed.

I just waited for her to punch me than I grabbed her wrist and pulled down, using her own momentum to knock her to the ground. Then I caught motion from the corner of my eye and snapped around to back-hand Green in the face before he could turn intangible.

Blue scrambled to her feet and came at me again, confident in her current strength and invulnerability. I used my power to simply throw her high into the air, wincing at the headache that was starting to form. I held her there for a moment and then used my power to bring her back down even harder and faster than normal, smashing her into the ground.

By this point, Green was back on his feet but wobbly and unstable. I wasn’t going to give him a chance to regain his balance though so used my power to shove him back and slammed him back into the wall of the building behind him, the base of Space Needle itself. Catching him before he could turn intangible had worked because he collapsed to the ground.

Blue was getting back to her feet as well and made one more try for me. However, I slashed at her with my metal claws when she got close, slicing through the cloth of her stomach and managing to make her freeze and grab at it.

“I’m bleeding,” she gasped, shocked at the realization that I’d been able to slice her even with her being invulnerable. However, I hadn’t gone very deep, just enough to scratch the surface and get her attention. I was pretty sure that if I really wanted to, I could have cut a lot deeper.

Then I took advantage of her distraction to punch her again as hard as I could with my metal hand, right into the solar plexus. That was enough to have an effect in spite of her invulnerability. I followed that up with another toss from my telekinesis.

“Shit,” I spat out, wincing at the growing headache but knowing that this was just about over.

That last attack proved to be all I needed since all of the Triad were taken down and in no condition to keep fighting. Normally I would have felt ecstatic at having managed something as impressive as taking down the Triad all by myself. However, all I could feel was frustration that it wasn’t Loki.

I stood back and looked around, noticing that there had a number of witnesses to the fight, people who’d been standing back in hiding. That meant the police would be here in just a minute to pick up the Triad. It seemed standard police procedure to stay back when developed where involved and then to only show up after the trouble was contained.

“If they can hold you,” I muttered bitterly, staring at the three defeated villains.

The seven had captured the Triad several times but they always manage to escape from custody before they could be taken to Mount Prometheus, the nearly inescapable prison for villains. Of course, it’s hard to hold someone prisoner when they can just turn intangible and fly away then switch powers with one of the others who was still held.

Of course, there was one other theory about how they kept escaping from custody, one that the Seven had developed after the Triad had disappeared a few times. We thought that just maybe there was another family member that stayed back out of trouble, one who kept some sort of teleporting power they could switch with when caught. Of course, it was only a theory but there were a few things to support it.

Just then, I suddenly realized that someone else had just arrived and it wasn’t the police. I turned to see a tall muscular man with dark hair, floating in the air a short distance away. He wore a white spandex costume with a white cape and a domino type mask on his face. Gold metal wrist bracers, belt, and broaches for the cape added to the costume which was topped off by a symbol on his chest, one that looked like a knight’s helmet.

“The White Knight,” I said coldly as the former member of the Seven landed in front of me.

“Traveler...?” the White Knight started, then paused to gasp, “Vesper?”

I realized then that the hood from my cloak had fallen back, revealing my hair and face. Of course he’d recognize this face and body since he’d been one of the founding members of the Seven.

“Vesper’s dead,” I spat out bitterly, reaching back to pull the hood over my head again. “They’re all dead.”

“What do you mean?” the White Knight demanded. “What’s going on Amelia?”

I just glared at the White Knight, not having realized until this very moment how much I resented him. He’d abandoned the Seven… He’d left us all and hadn’t been there when Loki attacked. Maybe…just maybe if he’d been there then things would have been different. His power and experience could have changed the tide of battle and let the Seven survive. Even as I thought this, I realized that it made no real sense. However, that made little difference to my bitter anger.

“I’m not Amelia,” I told him grimly.

The White Knight grabbed my shoulder but I pulled away, giving him a chance to see my right arm. He stared at it for a moment with a confused look on his face.

“What is that?” he asked, sounding more than a little worried. “The headquarters is gone… Now tell me what happened?”

“What happened?” I snapped angrily. “What happened is that we died… We all died…” I stepped back, shaking from the memories. “Loki killed us all…every last one of us.” Then I stared him in the eyes as I added, “I watched him kill everyone… I watched him kill me…”

The White Knight took a step back, staring at me with an expression of confusion and horror. When he spoke, he did so carefully, as though addressing someone who was crazy.

“Everything is all right now,” he told me. “If you’re not Vesper…who are you?”

“I’m nobody,” I answered quietly, taking a step back. “Not anymore…” Then I whispered, “I’m nothing…just a remnant of unfinished business.” And with that, I stepped back again and into the Empty, leaving the White Knight and his questions behind.

Once I was safe in the Empty, I let out a sigh of relief. Then I reached down and felt my belt, or more specifically, the disk that sat in place of a buckle...the disk that held the folded space pocket containing my own body and those of my friends.

"We did it," I whispered. "We took out the Triad..." Then I grimaced and added "Now we only need to get Loki."

After a few more seconds, I began to concentrate on how I could get back to the safe house. I frowned as the various paths became open to me, realizing that the closest one would only lead to right outside the house. I'd have to go twice as far to get to an opening on the inside. I realized that it would have been easier to just fly back to the top of the Space Needle and go back the way I came but it was too late for that now.

"Oh well," I signed, deciding to take the shorter route since I just wasn't in the mood to walk any more than I had to at the moment.

A short time later, I stepped out of the Empty and into the back yard behind the safe house. I had barely taken one step towards the back door when I heard a loud gasp from behind me. I snapped around, surprised to see a young teenage girl standing there, staring at me with a look of surprise. In fact, it was the same thirteen year old girl I'd seen walking past the house.

"Are you a super hero?" the girl blurted out.

"No," I responded coldly, angry at myself for not taking a better look at this place from the Empty before I'd come through. If I had, I probably would have seen her and known to hold back.

"Are you a villain?" she asked next, looking just a little nervous.

"No," I responded, glaring at her. "Go away and forget you ever saw me."

"But this is my place," the girl protested as I turned away. "I mean, no one lived here so this was where I came when I just wanted to be left alone."

"Go away," I told the girl quietly as I continued walking to the back door. "I want to be left alone."

I went inside and closed the door behind me, shaking my head as I made my way back through the house. Since I'd been seen, this place had been compromised and I should probably leave. However, the truth was that I had absolutely nowhere else to go. All I could do was hope the girl would keep her mouth shut about seeing me. Unfortunately, knowing the way girls her age were, I suspected that might be hoping too much.

I went down into the hidden basement then removed the cloak and the rest of my costume, slipping back into the civilian clothes I'd been wearing earlier. I winced slightly at the new bruises I'd gained in the fight, annoyed since the old ones had just started fading. Then as I made my way back upstairs, I considered that what I really needed was a nice hot bath and then a nap.

"A bath," I sighed, imagining how good that would feel.

Then I looked down at my female body and squirmed uncomfortably at the thought of getting that intimate with Vesper's body again. A bath could wait for now as could the nap. As nice as it would be to get some sleep, every time I slept anymore the nightmares came. So instead of relaxing after my fight, I turned my attention instead to the thing that mattered most...trying to find Loki.

I was sitting on the couch, eating my lunch and taking a break from my nearly nonstop search for Loki. Of course, I still had the TV on to a news channel that might potentially give me something but I was at least taking a break from searching the internet.

"Where are you?" I muttered, taking a bite of my grilled cheese sandwich. I was beginning to think that I'd have to change my way of searching which wasn't going to be easy. I might have been the one who kept up all the records and files the Seven had, but I was no computer expert and certainly no detective.

Just then, I was startled by the sound of the doorbell ringing. I jumped to my feet then looked out the window, wondering who in the world could possibly be at the door. I was a little surprised to see that it was the same girl who'd caught me coming out of the Empty in costume yesterday.

"What does she want?" I blurted out in confusion. Of course, there was only one way to find out.

I opened the door more out of curiosity than anything else. The girl looked slightly startled, almost as though she hadn't expected me to come out at all. Then she quickly looked me over, perhaps disappointed that I wasn't wearing my costume right now.

"You lied to me yesterday," the girl blurted out.

I blinked in surprise and responded, "What?"

"You told me you weren't a hero," she insisted. "I saw you on the news last night stopping those bad guys..."

For a moment, I thought about lying and pretending it wasn't me but realized that would not only be stupid but would seriously insult her intelligence. I'd been caught red handed...or was that black handed, in costume and using my power.

"Just because I fought some bad guys," I told her after a few seconds, "that doesn't make me a hero."

However, the girl shook her head, "No, you're definitely a hero."

"No," I told her quietly, backing away from the door so I could close it. "If there's one thing I know, its heroes. And I'm no hero."

Before I could close the door in the girls face, she squeezed right on inside and past me. "So," she asked almost excitedly. "What's your code name?"

"I don't have one," I told her with a scowl.

"But I thought every hero...I mean everyone with a costume had a code name." She stared at me curiously for a moment before adding, "I thought it was like a rule or something."

I couldn't help but chuckling faintly at that. "I used to think that too," I admitted. "But every rule has an exception."

"I'm Rebecca," the girl exclaimed holding out her hand. "But everyone calls me Becky."

"Ev...," I started on habit then realized that my real name would be too awkward at the moment and require too much explanation. "Evelyn," I said instead. "Eve."

As I shook Becky's hand, she stared at my arm with a look of amazement. It was then that I realized that I was wearing a t-shift so my entire metal arm was fully visible.

"Your arm is metal," she blurted out, still staring at my arm.

"It’s a prosthetic," I responded with a scowl. "I lost my real one."

"Wow," Becky gasped. "How long ago?"

I hesitated a moment, wincing at the memory before answering, "Last week."

Becky's eyes went wide at that and she stared at me even harder before cautiously asking, "Did...does it hurt?"

"Like hell when it happened," I whispered, closing my eyes and shaking slightly. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down and added, "Not much now."

The truth was, when the artifact had bonded itself to my bloody stump, it must have done something to the pain receptors because the pain had almost completely vanished. However, I still kept feeling twinges of pain from that spot as well as elsewhere but I wasn't sure how much of it was residual pain the artifact hadn't been able to take care of and how much was just psychosomatic. In the end, it didn't really matter because I still kept feeling the aches.

"So what are your powers?" Becky asked curiously. "I saw you appear out of thin air..."

"And I can make little girls disappear," I responded with a very faint smile.

However, Becky just grinned, "Then it’s a good thing I'm not a little girl."

I just snorted at that and looked her over. She was right in that she wasn't exactly a little girl anymore since she was starting to develop some girlish curves, but she was also obviously something of a tomboy. However, as far as I was concerned she was still just a kid. In fact,it suddenly struck me that she was also about the same age I'd been when I first met the Seven.

Suddenly, Becky blurted out, "Can I be your sidekick?"

"What?" I gasped in surprise. That was about the last thing I expected to hear.

"Maybe you can teach me to watch your back," Becky quickly exclaimed.

"Forget it," I snapped. "The last thing I need is a sidekick. You have no idea how dangerous that kind of thing is to someone with no powers."

Becky just shrugged at that, looking as though she might have been half teasing me. "Well then," she said, "Maybe I can just hang around a little..."

"That's how it all starts," I muttered with a grimace. "Then some villain shows up and kidnaps you and straps you to the chest of some giant robot." I shook my head and spat out, "The next thing you know, you're watching everyone you care about get killed."

This time it was her turn to stare at me and ask, "What?" Then she muttered, "Wow. Overreact much?"

I scowled in annoyance and asked, "What are you doing here anyway? Girls your age are supposed to be experimenting with makeup and flirting with boys...not pestering people who just want to be left alone."

"Fine," Becky snapped. "I know when I'm not wanted." She went to the door and paused to glare at me for a moment and added, "And talk about makeup... Maybe you should learn to use some. You look like crap." And with that, she left.

Once Becky was gone, I just stood there for a moment feeling perplexed, not quite sure whether to be annoyed or amused by her. I shook my head, suddenly realizing that she reminded me of Landspeed...of Karen. Karen had been quite the fireball as well. Then again, Becky also reminded me a little of myself...back from when I was that age and first met up with the Seven.

"Weird girl," I muttered, smiling faintly and realizing that this might be the first time I'd really smiled even that much in a week. I couldn't help but feeling just a little guilty at that though.

Then I considered what Becky had said about my looking like crap. I frowned and went to the bathroom, pausing for several long seconds before looking into the mirror.

“Damn,” I muttered with a wince, “I do look like crap.”

I looked tired and worn out and my hair was all limp and messy. In fact, I looked only a step or two away from being some crazy homeless woman…and it wasn’t a very big step. I almost didn’t even recognize Amelia in the mirror.

I stared at my reflection for near a full minute, feeling sort of nauseous and disgusted. As I did this, a very unpleasant and uncomfortable truth finally dawned on me.

Until now, I’d thought that I was doing a good job of adjusting to my new body and adapting. However, now I realized that I had been doing the exact opposite. I hadn’t been adjusting to my new body…I’d been running and hiding from it.

I’ve been avoiding mirrors and I hadn’t even taken a shower since I was back at the headquarters. It felt like I’d be getting too intimate, that I’d be invading her privacy too much. And though I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself, it also freaked me out. So instead of really dealing with my changes, I’ve been trying hard to ignore them. I’ve been distracting myself and rationalizing it.

“I have to deal with this,” I said quietly. “I’m like this for the rest of my life.” I knew that if I didn’t find a way to come to terms with my new body, with the fact that I was in Amelia’s body, I’d probably lose my mind.

However, there was one other thing that disturbed me even more than this realization. It was the fact that it was Amelia’s body that I’d been treating this way. She’d left me her body…unintentionally though it was…and I’d been neglecting it. Amelia had never been particularly vain but she’d been beautiful and had taken pains to always look good. I felt ashamed.

For a long minute, I just stood there considering this and then I began to undress. It was awkward to just stand there staring at myself naked in the mirror and I felt as though I should turn away but I didn’t.

“This was Amelia’s body,” I told myself. “But now it’s my body too. I have to start thinking of it as my body. I have to start thinking of this as me…”

I slowly ran my hands over my body, feeling my breasts and even between my legs. Up until now, I’d done everything I could to stay clinical and detached. This was the first time I’d allowed myself to explore it like this. I still felt like I was being too intimate with it but I continued with my explorations.

After a few minutes, I climbed into the shower and began to wash up, continuing my explorations as I did so. I felt better after I cleaned up and washed my hair as well as just a little less guilty about feeling myself up like this.

In spite of my explorations, I wasn’t masturbating or getting turned on. This whole situation was just a little too weird for that and there was really nothing erotic about this at the moment.

When I was finished, I dried myself off, taking special care with my hair. I then sat down and began brushing it, forcing myself to go slow and pull out the snags that had built up over the last week. I had to keep reminding myself that Amelia had always taken good care of it and I should do no less.

A short time later, I was sitting back on the couch with a towel wrapped around my torso. I had to admit that I actually felt pretty good now…at least physically. Some of the stress had faded away so at least for this moment I could get relax.

I was walking down the sidewalk, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying several bags of groceries. The store was about half a mile away from the safe house, a short enough distance that I could easily walk it.

Since I’d decided to take better care of my new body, that meant getting healthier food to eat as well as more exercise. I’ve already done some push-ups and crunches this morning to help me stay in shape but a little extra walking would help as well.

Of course, there was another motivation for my intentionally trying to get more exercise. I’ve been doing a lot of sitting around while looking for Loki and I didn’t want to be out of shape and sloppy when I found him. When I finally caught up with Loki, I wanted to have every advantage I could.

I was just getting back to the safe house when I suddenly heard a voice calling out, “Hey Eve...” I looked up and saw Becky coming towards me with a grin on her face.

“Becky,” I said cautiously, remembering that she’d been upset with me when she ran off yesterday.

“Hey, are you going shopping?” Becky asked, looking at the grocery bags in my hands. “Why aren’t you driving?”

“I don’t have a car,” I told her with a sigh.

“Why not?” Becky pushed.

I rolled my eyes and answered, “I never needed one.”

“Oh yeah,” Becky responded with a nod. “I mean, you can teleport and all so why would you need a car?” Then she abruptly asked, “So, why don’t you teleport to the store and back?”

I gave her a steady look and sighed. “I’m trying NOT to draw attention.”

“Oh yeah, sorry,” Becky said with a giggle. “I guess I should have known better.” Then she paused for a moment before blurting out, “You know, I didn’t tell anyone about your whole secret identity thing.”

“That’s good to know,” I told her wryly. “I’d hate to have to leave right after I just moved in.”

“But I didn’t see any moving trucks,” Becky mused aloud, making me roll my eyes though I also smiled faintly at the same time.

“Here,” I told her, handing her half my groceries, “Make yourself useful.”

Becky and I went inside and set the groceries in the kitchen. She talked the entire time, jumping from topic to topic at random. At the moment, she was talking about one of her friends at school who was having some sort of romance problems.

“I help my mom like this all the time,” Becky told me as she began separating out my groceries and looking through the cupboards for where they would go. Once she looked in the fridge, she exclaimed, “Wow, you don’t have much in here…”

“Hence the reason I went shopping,” I pointed out with a chuckle. I wasn’t quite sure why, but I added, “This is just a safe house… We used to keep it just in case of an emergency.”

Becky froze and turned to stare at me for a moment before asking, “What kind of emergency?” Then she gasped. “Does this have something to do with your arm?”

I grimaced, suddenly wishing I’d kept my mouth shut. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. “Something very bad happened to my friends,” I finally said, my voice shaking. “I’m just staying here while I look for the guy who did it.”

“Oh,” Becky responded, looking like she wanted to ask me more. However, she took one long look at me and apparently realized that it wouldn’t be a very good idea at the moment.

After a moment, I went to the living room and turned the TV back on. It was already set to the news channel. I hadn’t watched anything except news channels since coming to this place since I wouldn’t find Loki by keeping up with the latest episodes of CSI.

I went and sat down at the computer to check on any new reports of Loki that might have appeared during the last hour or so while Becky sat down on the couch and continued to talk. I suspected she was a little lonely and just wanted someone who'd listen to her, though I wasn't quite sure why I got picked for the job. Still, there was something nice about having the company, perhaps because she just distracted me from some of my own problems. After a few minutes, I turned away from the computer and gave Becky my full attention, thankful for the distraction.

"My friend Tina once saw a developed hero flying past her house," Becky told me excitedly. "I bet she'd flip out if she knew I was actually talking to someone who was developed..." Then she paused to give me a look that suggested a hope that I'd give her permission to talk about me. Then she shrugged, "I guess it’s too bad I can't."

I just nodded faintly, remembering what it was like to be that age and wanting to brag about knowing the Seven. I probably would have done so if I'd actually had any other friends to do so with.

"So, do you know who it was your friend saw?" I asked curiously.

Becky nodded, "Yeah. Tina said she saw the White Knight."

"He does get around," I responded with a faint smile.

At that, Becky gave me a look of amazement and blurted out, "Do you know him?"

I hesitated for a moment before responding, "I've known him for about five years."

"Wow," Becky exclaimed. "I bet you know a lot of heroes."

I just shrugged at that, feeling a dark weight as I realized that about half the heroes I knew fairly well were now dead. "I know a few," I finally answered, trying not to show what I was feeling.

That admission only served to excite Becky even more and she began begging me to tell her about all the heroes I'd met. I sighed, shaking my head and wishing I'd kept my mouth shut. Just a couple weeks ago, I would have been more than happy to talk about this subject but now it was a bit of a sore spot.

Just then, I looked back at the TV and froze as I saw a familiar figure being displayed. "Loki," I hissed, clenching my fists. My right hand had been holding the edge of the computer desk so the wood cracked under my hand.

"What?" Becky gasped in confusion.

I jumped to my feet and glared at the TV, seeing that it was report that Loki was in the middle of robbing a jewelry store in Portland Oregon. A seething mass of rage and hatred bubbled up and burst to the surface, just as strong as ever. The TV exploded under the force of my emotions while Becky jumped back and stared at me with an expression of fear.

"Shit," Becky blurted out.

"It's him," I said grimly. "I finally found that bastard..." Then I stared at the ruins of the TV and whispered, "I can finally get revenge..."

"But...," Becky started, staring at me with a look of confusion. "But I thought heroes didn't do revenge..."

"I told you before," I responded with a glare, "I'm no hero."

Becky just stared at me for a moment before cautiously asking, "What did he do to you?"

"More than you can imagine," I whispered.

"But you don't need to go," Becky protested. "The Seven will stop him. I bet he didn't know that we have them around here to stop bad guys..."

"No they won't," I said quietly. Then I stared at Becky with tears starting to run down my cheeks. I looked her straight in the eyes as I spat out, "They're dead. He killed them last week."

"What?" Becky gasped in disbelief.

"Loki killed the Seven last week," I exclaimed angrily. "He killed us all..." Then I held up my right arm and said, "He's the one who cut off my arm."

"You...," Becky started, staring at me with a look of shock. "You're with the Seven?"

I didn't answer that question. Instead, I turned away with a scowl and said, "I've got to go."

With that, I went to the hallway and opened up the secret passage, not even caring that Becky saw me doing this. Right now, my only concern was getting to Loki before he left and I had to start looking for him all over again. At the moment, getting Loki was the only thing that mattered.

I quickly went to the basement and had already stripped off my clothes and was just starting to zip up my costume when Becky hesitantly made her way down. She looked around, obviously dumbfounded and paying special attention to the Seven's logo which was painted on the wall and which probably gave credence to what I'd already told her.

Just half a minute later, I had my costume fully on and was pulling the cloak on. As I pulled the hood over my head, I turned to Becky and told her, "You might want to get home."

Becky just nodded and said, "Be careful Eve," right before I stepped into the Empty.

When I'd seen Loki on the TV, I got a clear view of where he was at and pictured it. I felt the cloak giving me the options for the crossover points near that location and began running towards the nearest one. I just wished it would lead me to people as easily as it did places, though unfortunately, the cloak didn't work that way. If it did I would have found Loki with no problem.

As soon as I stepped out of the Empty, I saw Loki a short distance in front of me, laughing in delight as a ten foot tall gorilla that was dressed as a clown picked up a car and tossed it through the window of a building. I could only stare in confusion at this scene, wondering what in the world could have possessed Loki to summon something like that. Then I reminded myself that Loki might be very powerful but he didn't have a lot of control over it.

Of course, it might be a little strange that someone as powerful as Loki would rob a jewelry store when he could conjure up all the jewels and treasure he needed, but that didn't surprise me too much either. After all, that same lack of control came into play here as well as the fact that in spite of all his power, Loki was basically a street thug and anarchist at heart. I suspected that this whole thing was merely an excuse to show off his power and cause havoc.

I froze at the sight of Loki, feeling a swirling mass of burning rage but also something else...terror. I felt a cold chill of raw dread creeping up my spine. This was the man who'd destroyed everyone and everything I ever cared about and who haunted my nightmares

"Come on and try me if you've got the balls," Loki yelled out to any the witnesses within hearing distance. "Go ahead and send the Protectorate or Miracle Men... I don't give a fuck! No one fucks with me! I killed the Seven and I'll kill all them too...!"

"And you'll die for that," I yelled back, finally gathering my courage and catching Loki's attention.

Loki turned to look at me with an expression of surprise. "Traveler...," he started but then paused to blurt out, "You're a chick."

"Thanks to you," I muttered under my breath.

I didn't bother giving Loki any more explanations before I attacked him, telekinetically grabbing a piece of rubble from a building and throwing it at him as hard as I could. However, he jumped out of the way and avoided being hit...barely. Of course, I immediately tried again with another piece of rubble.

"Stop it," Loki exclaimed and suddenly the rubble vanished in mid-air right before it would have hit him. Then he looked at the gorilla clown who was still smashing things at random and ordered it, "Get her..." The gorilla paused to snort in annoyance before it charged at me.

My first impulse was to telekinetically shove the gorilla away from me though I immediately realized that he was far too large and massive for that. I could move him with a lot of effort but it would leave me with a splitting headache and unable to defend myself. Since I couldn't move him effectively I moved myself instead, telekinetically raising myself into the air and well out of the reach, levitating the same way that Vesper usually did.

As I looked down on the gorilla clown, he stared back at me with solid black eyes that seemed dark and menacing, hinting at a malevolent force that was far more than the mere giant gorilla he appeared to be. A cold chill shot up my spine as I realized that the creature Loki had summoned to kill the Seven had eyes that were very much the same.

The gorilla roared and picked up a chunk of debris and threw it at me. I used my power to divert it in one direction while pushing myself in the other. It roared again, seeming angry that I'd avoided its attack so easily. But if that made it mad, I was sure what I was going to do next would really piss him off.

I reached for Armory's arm guard and summoned the energy rifle from the gem. Then I held it steady in both hands and began blasting down at the gorilla. I got him several times in the chest and dropped him to the ground before turning my attention to the real target, Loki.

"Die you bastard," I yelled out, opening fire on Loki.

"Protect me," Loki exclaimed, looking afraid for a moment until a shimmering bubble appeared around him and my blasts bounced off. "Fucking loser."

I snarled in rage and opened fire again, missing with the first shot and hitting a building behind Loki. I fired another time and hit him but his force field deflected the blast so that it hit a building as well. That just pissed me off so I kept firing while he just stood inside his protective bubble laughing at me.

Just then, there was a roar from below me and I looked down to see that the clown gorilla was getting back up. It snarled and then made a leap right at me. I moved to the side in time to avoid his charge but he swung out with his arm and managed to connect. I blocked with my metal arm which took the brunt of his hit but I still went flying back, losing concentration and falling to the ground.

I lost the rifle when I hit but immediately got back to my feet. The Gorilla started coming towards me, moving slowly as though intentionally trying to play with me. I could swear that he actually looked smug.

I glanced over at Loki and saw him laughing in delight from the safety of his force field. Then Loki pointed at me and yelled out, "Die!" I winced and braced myself for whatever was coming but nothing did. Nothing happened at all which obviously surprised Loki just as much as it did me. "Destroy her..." Again, nothing happened.

I grinned, realizing that Loki's force field protected me from him just as well as it protected him from me. He seemed to realize this at the same time I did because he looked furious and began slamming his staff against the force field, screaming at it to let him out. When it didn't, he went frantic, hitting it even harder and letting out a long stream of profanities.

"So you locked yourself up for me," I said with a chuckle, knowing that I'd still have to pry him out of there when I was done with his gorilla. But for now, it should at least keep Loki out of the way.

The gorilla suddenly leapt at me and I barely dodged to the site in time to avoid being hit. I managed to hit him in the side in passing with my metal fist, remembering how well it had punched through walls and hoping it would do that kind of damage to him. The gorilla grunted and snarled but didn't go down. Of course, he'd already taken several shots with my rifle and had just gotten back up afterwards.

Then the gorilla suddenly swung around and grabbed hold of me with one hand which was big enough to grasp around my middle. He picked me up, holding me firmly but not crushing me though he obviously had the power to do so. He lifted me up to look him in the eyes, smirking as much as a gorilla could while he played with me some more, showing that he could kill me with ease.

"Fuck that," I snarled, suddenly slashing down with my right arm and tearing my metal claws right through his eyes. "That's for the clown makeup."

With a loud howl of pain, the gorilla dropped me and grabbed at his face. I looked back to my dropped rifle and used my powers to make it fly right into my hands. A moment later, I started firing it right into the monster's face, shot after shot until it hit the ground and then began to fade away and vanish.

"Clowns are bad enough," I spat out. "Clown monkeys are just ridiculous."

I turned my attention back to Loki who was still frantically trying to get out of his own force field. The sight brought a faint smile to my lips. However, he finally just teleported right out of the force field bubble and reappeared about ten feet away. The force field popped and vanished the moment he was gone.

Loki took one look at where his force field had been and yelled, "Fuck you...," at it. Then he saw me aiming the rifle at him again and exclaimed, "Get rid of that bitch’s gun,"

Suddenly, my rifle fell apart in my hands, breaking into about a hundred smaller pieces that all fell to the ground. I stared at the mess in surprise and annoyance. It looked like the whole thing hadn't just broken but had been completely disassembled into its components.

"Get rid of her," Loki announced with a smirk.

Suddenly the ground began to shake and before I realized what was happening, water began to burst out of the groundaround Loki like geysers erupting. However, the water immediately changed direct and formed a wave of water that came right at me. I was barely able to lift myself into the air and out of the water's path in time. Loki however, was not quite so lucky and was caught in the very river he'd just created. He grabbed hold of a car to try holding on but the car was starting to move.

"Get me out of the water," Loki yelled and suddenly the ground began to rise beneath him, creating a pillar of concrete that held him up and out of the water. I hovered in the air, enjoying the sight of him soaking wet while I was dry. While this was happening, the water stopped coming from the ground and what had already been flowing quickly spread out and receded.

I glared at Loki, wishing that I still had the energy rifle so I could take this clear shot. As I thought that, I suddenly felt the strange moving sensation from my metal arm, similar to when my claws formed or when it had turned into a tentacle. When it passed, my arm felt slightly different but didn't really look any different, other than a small red glowing disk that had appeared on the back of my hand.

I wasn't sure what I was doing since my arm almost seemed to respond on its own. I raised my hand and suddenly a beam of red energy shot out of my palm and towards Loki. I missed him but barely noticed that since I was stunned by what I'd just done. I held up my hand and looked at it again, realizing that there was now a red gem set into my palm. When I looked at the back of my hand, the disk was no longer a perfect circle but now looked like a pizza with a slice taken out of it.

"Holy shit," I gasped. The artifact had never been this versatile for the Umbrella. The only reason I could figure that it was doing this much for me was because I was connected to it in a way that was more personal and permanent. Then a slow cold grin formed as I realized what this meant. I was armed again...in more ways than one.

I pointed my palm at Loki and gave the mental command and it worked, firing a blast of red energy at him again. However, Loki exclaimed, "Protect me," again and the blast went right through him as though he wasn't there. I grimaced and fired another blast but that went through him as well, putting a small hole in the wall behind him. I absently noticed that it did less damage than then r1fle had but figured it would still do the job.

"So he's intangible this time," I muttered in frustration.

Then I snarled and fired more blasts at Loki, hoping as I did so that his latest protection would wear off so I could hit him. I wanted to be ready to take him down the moment I did. But while I was firing, I noticed that the red disk on my hand had more and more slices turning dark until only one pizza slice remained. I suspected that this was telling me how much power I had available and that I only had one or two shots left.

I paused for a moment, not wanting to waste my remaining shots unnecessarily. Of course, I could still throw rubble at him with my telekinesis and that could be effective too, assuming I could actually hit him.

Loki noticed my pause and took full advantage of it. He slammed the base of his staff on the ground and yelled out, "BOOM!"

Suddenly there a massive explosion from one of the tall buildings on the side of the street. Even Loki looked a little surprised as the side of the building was blown apart and began raining huge sections of rubble down onto the street. I lost concentration and fell the rest of the way to the ground. Then I tried to wrap myself in the cloak so I could step into the Empty to avoid being crushed but Loki did something else and suddenly a powerful gust of wind hit me and sent me flying back.

"Hell yeah," Loki exclaimed as large chunks of building started to smash around me. One large chunk of concrete landed on my cloak and pinned it to the ground. "Don't fuck with Loki..."

I screamed with a mixture of rage, frustration, and terror as rubble came straight at me. I frantically used my telekinesis to grab the largest piece of rubble and use it to block the rest. The ruins of the building crashed all around me while I desperately pushed with my power, creating a pocket of safety while I was buried alive. When it stopped, I had managed to avoid being crushed but was now buried alive in a space little bigger than a coffin.

I've never been claustrophobic but I suddenly understood that fear all too well. It was all I could do to keep from screaming in panic. The cloak was pinned and buried enough that there was no way I could use it to get out. I tried pushing the rubble away from me with my telekinesis, to dig my way out, but there was way too much of it to budge and I was quickly developing a bad headache to no effect. I briefly considered using my arm to try blasting my way out but had a bad feeling that this would only collapse everything in on top of me and kill me instead.

At this point, I did scream and then alternated between yelling for help as loud as I could and trying in vain to move all the weight above me with my telekinesis. My headache quickly grew worse and worse until I could barely even think and then just collapsed into unconsciousness.

When I came to, I was still in the dark and had no room to move. I was breathing and knew that there wouldn't have been enough air in that small space to keep me alive for long so my tomb wasn't air tight. There was some ventilation among the rubble, not that it had done me any good so far. However, it at least let me breath and might even allow my voice to be heard by searchers.

Then I became aware of noise, of the sound of the rubble nearby moving. I grimaced, not sure if that was a good sign or not. Still, it might be help so I yelled out hoping to get their attention.

A minute later, the rubble around me all suddenly pulled away, leaving me in the open. I gasped for breath, thankful for the fresh air and the feeling of no longer being trapped. I sat up and winced at the fresh aches and then looked around. I was startled to see a wall of concrete and rubble behind me. It looked almost as though it had all melted together into one mass and was then just pushed back.

"Damn," I muttered as I got back to my feet, feeling stiff and shaky.

Only then did I see the figure standing a short distance away. It was a woman in a green cloak with the hood over her head so it obscured her face. She gestured and the wall of rubble moved back away from me even more.

"Where is he?" I demanded. "Where's Loki..."

The woman was silent for a moment before responding, "He was gone by the time I got here." She bowed her head slightly before adding, "I heard about your fight with him and am relieved...but a little surprised that you're still alive. When witnesses said the building fell on you everyone had assumed the worst..."

"Damn" I spat out with a surge of anger and frustration. "He got away..." I closed my eyes for a moment, angry more at myself than anything. I'd finally found Loki but hadn't been able to beat him. Instead, I was lucky just to have survived. "Yeah," I muttered bitterly. "Lucky. Again." Then I remembered why I was still alive and said, "Thank you. Thank you for pulling me out of there."

At that, I looked more closely at my rescuer and she pulled the hood of her cloak back so I could see her face. She was beautiful in a very exotic way. Her skin and hair were chalk white. Even her eyes were pure white with no sign of pupils, a feature which made her somehow seem eerie and inhuman.

"Lady Hexx," I said her name in recognition to which she nodded slightly.

I knew who Lady Hexx was from her file as well as several conversations I'd had with the Seven about her. She was somewhat mysterious with no one knowing where she'd originally come from or how she'd gained her powers. All anyone knew was that the first time she'd appeared it had been to attack the famous super hero Force in public. Their fight had gotten a little out of hand and afterwards she'd been locked up in Mount Prometheus, the prison for super villains, while Force had gone on the run from the cops and had eventually become as big a threat as any villain.

The authorities had released Lady Hexx from prison and made some kind of deal with her. Ever since, she'd been acting as a hero and has been heavily involved in a lot of search and rescue efforts. A lot of heroes still saw her as a villain though and blamed her for what happened to Force, a few of them even accusing her of using some sort of mind control on Force to make him go bad. However, I'd met Force before any of this happened and he'd struck me as an egotistical asshole even back then. I had no trouble believing that he'd go bad on his own.

"One of the witnesses recorded a video of most of your fight with Loki," Lady Hexx said after a moment. "I watched it. You seemed more interested in fighting Loki than stopping his robbery... It seemed very...personal."

"You have no idea," I spat out bitterly.

"I think I do," she responded softly. She gave me a sad smile and added, "I understand the need for vengeance very well."

I met her eyes and replied, "And I imagine you'll tell me it’s not worth it." I snorted to show my opinion of that.

However, she shook her head and told me, "Not at all. I know what that kind of drive feels like." Then she let out a sigh and stared off to the side for a moment before adding, "I just want to remind you not to forget that other things are important too...such as bystanders who could have been killed."

"I'll remember that," I responded with a scowl.

Lady Hexx stared at me, her expression somewhat skeptical. Then she said, "You were fighting him as if taking him down was the most important thing. As if nothing else mattered." She paused for a moment and looked me in the eyes before continuing, "That's exactly the way Force fought."

I stared at her in surprise before I shrugged and said, "I'm not Force."

"No," Lady Hexx told me with a cold grin of her own. "But you don't want to become like him either. If you're not careful, you might end up turning into the person you hate." She chuckled faintly before adding, "I had to learn that myself." Then she abruptly said, "You know who I am but I don't know your name."

"I don't have one anymore," I answered quietly. I couldn't meet her eyes and I turned away and muttered, "I'm nobody..."

"Calling yourself Nobody sounds more like a joke than a code name," Lady Hexx responded while I turned and glared at her. However, her expression turned to one of sadness as she added, "Your sense of self-identity seems to be somewhat broken." Then she became very grim before whispering, "Unfortunately, I understand that too..."

I just grunted and turned away again, feeling more than a little skeptical about her claims. Somehow, I doubted that Lady Hexx had any idea of how I possibly felt. How could she? How could anyone?

"Thanks again for pulling me out from under there," I told her before I pulled my cloak around me and stepped into the Empty.

Once I was in the Empty, I dropped to my knees and cried out in frustration. My body was bruised again and I still had aheadache but the pain that really hurt the most was emotional. I'd failed completely and utterly. After finally finding Loki, I hadn’t been able to defeat him. I hadn’t been able to get the revenge that my friends deserved.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, tears coming down my cheeks as I put a hand on the disk that was attached to the front of my belt.

I still had the bodies of my friends with me, in stasis and stored in the pocket of folded space. I’d wanted them with me to give me strength and because they deserved to be there when Loki when down. But now…now I realized my mistake. I’d nearly been killed fighting Loki. If I’d died back there, they would have been lost with no one realizing they were even there. They never would have gotten the funerals they deserved.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered again, knowing that I was a complete and total failure. I hadn’t been able to do anything when they were all dying and I hadn’t been able to do enough against Loki. Even with everything they’d left me, I still hadn’t been able to take him.

After several minutes, I got back to my feet, just wishing for a safe place where I could be alone to think. Just then, the cloak responded to my thoughts and I could feel it pointing me in a direction. I was a little surprised since I hadn’t been thinking of any specific place and the cloak wasn’t giving me multiple crossover points. Just a direction without even any distance.

I grew curious and started walking in that direction, not going very far when the air in front of me seemed to ripple. Where there had been absolutely nothing in front of me but the vast empty landscape for as far as I could see, something actually appeared. As I got closer, I saw that it was a small wooden shack.

“What the hell?” I gasped in surprise. The Empty was supposed to be completely and totally empty of everything, yet here was something.

There was a door on the shack but no lock. I stepped inside and looked around, seeing that it was just a single small room with a small bed, a desk, and a bookshelf. There was a small propane stove on the desk and I could see a case of bottled water as well as some stores of food on the book shelf.

Then I noticed several small pictures on the shelf, one of a young Asian man with a pretty young woman. He looked familiar and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was the Traveler, a young Traveler in civilian clothes.

“So the Traveler had his own safe house,” I said in realization. “Smart.”

I sat down on the bed and let out a sigh. This wasn’t the regular safe house but it would do for the moment. I’d wanted to be alone and you couldn’t get more alone than the Empty.

I removed the disk from my belt and held it up, running my hand over the large blue gem that covered most of its front surface. I felt a lump of lead in my chest as I stared at it, knowing that my friends were inside…or at least that their bodies were.

“I can’t risk you guys again,” I said, my voice shaking.

I’d drawn confidence in knowing that they were with me but that hadn’t been enough. Now I needed to make sure they had the proper funerals that they’d earned.

Of course, there was one small problem with that…one of the reasons that I’d been carrying them around with me. I had no idea how to get them out of stasis.

“But I know someone who does,” I thought aloud. I stared at the disk again and told my friends, “Once I get you guys taken care of, I’ll go after Loki again.”

I clenched my fists and felt the anger. Everything in the shack began to shake at once so I tried to calm down and back off my emotions.

I remained in the shack for several hours, thinking about the fight with Loki and where I’d gone wrong. I replayed the fight over and over again in my mind, considering every mistake I’d made and how I could do better next time. Because the one thing I was sure of was that there would be a next time. It would also be the last.

After awhile, another thought occurred to me. I looked down at myself, staring at my breasts and sighed. It seemed ironic that after I’d determined to take better care of my new body that I’d get it beaten up and nearly got killed.

“I’m sorry Amelia,” I whispered. However, I couldn’t avoid risking my health and life. Not until Loki was destroyed.

Once I was ready, I stood up and took a deep breath to brace myself for what was coming. It wouldn’t be easy but I had to do it and I’d already made the decision. All that was left now was to follow through.

With that, I started walking off into the Empty to the crossover point that I needed. When I reached it, I stepped through and found myself standing in a moderate sized room with large double sided wooden doors in front of me and a heavy metal door behind me. The floor was decorated with the symbol of a lightning bolt.

“Hello,” I called out, holding my hands out to show I was unarmed and not a threat. After all, I’d just teleported past all of the security and into the main entry way of a super hero headquarters. “I would like to talk to Doctor Power.”

I had come to the headquarters of the group Lighting Force, one of the groups that the Seven often coordinated and shared files with. I’d met their leader Doctor Power several times since then and knew that he was the one who could help me. He was one of the smartest men around and would certainly know how to get the Seven out of Stasis. In fact, I was pretty certain he’d actually helped Armory out with the stasis device.

I waited patiently for nearly a minute before the wooden doors opened up and four people stood there. In the front was Doctor Power, a man with black hair that had a white streak in the front of it. He wore a green jumpsuit with a white lightning bolt symbol on his chest. He had belts full of metal canisters around his waist and chest.

After taking a long look at Doctor Power, I looked at the others. To his side was a woman with dark blue hair and who was wearing a silky and loose costume of purple and blue. She had a purple tattoo in the middle of her forehead that looked something like an eye. This is Mindseye, a telepath and illusionist.

To Doctor Power’s other side was a man whose entire body was sold black and who looked something like a living shadow with glowing white eyes. This was Syphon, a man with the ability to absorb any and all forms of energy.

The last of the group was a woman in green chitenous armor that covered her entire body and head. There were black markings over the armor that reminded me a little of those tribal style tattoos. This was Hardshell, a woman with a suit of powerful alien armor.

Doctor Power stared at me for a moment with a curious look on his face. “What’s going on Vesper?” he asked. “And why are you wearing Traveler’s cloak.”

“I’m not Vesper,” I responded grimly. I met his eyes and tried to keep my voice controlled as I told him, “Vesper is dead… They’re all dead… That’s why I’m here.”

“I’m afraid you aren’t making any sense,” Doctor Power said carefully, giving me a look as though he suspected I might not be in my right mind. I suppose I couldn’t blame him after I came here in Vesper’s body and told him that I wasn’t really her.

Just then, the tattoo on Mindseye’s forehead glowed faintly and I could feel a presence in my mind. “GET OUT,” I snarled at her angrily. I didn’t want her in my mind…I didn’t want ANYONE in my mind.

“I’m sorry,” Mindseye gasped, staring at me with a look of horror and pity. Her presence immediately pulled out of my mind but it was too late. She’d seen… She knew... I felt violated…

I glared at Mindseye, having to control myself to keep from slamming her with my telekinesis. It had been my instinct to do that the moment she’d invaded my mind though I’d managed to keep it under control. For one thing, she was a hero and didn’t really mean any harm, and for another, Doctor Power was a telekinetic too and probably even more powerful than me. I didn’t come to get into a fight with him or the rest of them. That wasn’t why I was here.

“What is going on here?” Doctor Power asked again, this time looking to Mindseye.

“She isn’t Vesper,” Mindseye said carefully, glancing at Hardshell for some reason. “She isn’t a threat though.”

“So there isn’t going to be a fight?” Hardshell asked, sounding almost disappointed. “Great way to waste my time then…” And with that, she turned and walked away while Syphon followed her, apparently in agreement.

Mindseye watched them leave then looked back at me again, frowning slightly and muttering, “I can’t believe it… Another one…”

“The Seven were killed,” I told Doctor Power, trying to calm down and focus on why I was here rather than on my anger at being invaded.

Doctor Power scowled, looking extremely grim. “Come in,” he told me. “You can tell me everything.”

A minute later, I was sitting in a conference room with Doctor Power and Mindseye. I took the disk that contained the Seven’s bodies and set it on the conference table. Doctor Power looked at it, seeming to recognize what it was but not saying a thing.

“Loki attacked us,” I finally said, grimacing as the emotions all swirled again. “He killed everyone…tore us all to pieces…”

“I’m sorry,” Doctor Power said gently. “But what do you mean when you say you aren’t Vesper?”

I was silent at that so Mindseye looked at me for a moment and said, “From her memories… Loki made them all switch bodies then killed them while they were distracted.”

“What?” Doctor Power gasped, staring at me with a look of surprise. “Then who are you? Traveler?” He paused for a moment then mused, “No, you don’t speak with his cadence…”

“I’m nobody,” I told him quietly. “Not anymore…”

Mindseye gave me a long look of pity before she bent over and whispered in Doctor Power’s ear. She obviously told him who I really was…or at least who I used to be. He stared at me in surprise again.

“I put their bodies in stasis and stored them in here,” I said, putting my hand on the disk.

“One of Armory’s pocket spaces,” Doctor Power said.

“I didn’t know how to get them out of stasis,” I explained sadly, fighting back the tears. “They need to be taken care of.”

“I understand,” Doctor Power said sadly.

“We’ll get them out,” Mindseye told me gently. “We’ll need to notify their families…”

I nodded at that and then began to tell them what I knew of how to contact the families and what I knew of how they’d want to be treated. I knew that I should probably do it myself, that I should tell their next of kin and explain what happened. However, the truth was that I couldn’t bear to face them. I knew that I’d die of shame.

After this, Doctor Power took the disk and left while Mindseye sat with me for a minute, not saying anything a first. When she finally spoke, it was to say, “It wasn’t your fault… You’ve been through so much and you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“That’s none of your business,” I told her bitterly, still bothered by the way she’d intruded into my mind without permission.

I got up and walked out the door of the conference room, nearly bumping into a young woman in the process. She was very pretty with short, dark blonde hair. However, what drew my attention was that she was wearing some sort of tiara that looked like it was made some sort of organic looking metal.

“Out of my way,” I spat out as I pushed past her and stormed down the hall.

“What the fuck is her problem?” the blonde demanded of Mindseye who’d followed me out.

“Post traumatic stress disorder,” Mindseye responded with a sigh, “and severe survivors guilt.”

I just grimaced and started back towards the entry of the building until I remembered that I didn’t need to go back the way I’d come. I could step into the Empty from anywhere.

However, before I could do so, Mindseye rushed up to me and put her arm on my shoulder. “It isn’t your fault Everett… There was nothing you could do.”

“I’m not Everett anymore,” I spat out, glaring at her. “Everett died… I watched him get cut in half…” Then I smiled bitterly and told her, “If you really need a name, you can just call me Eve.” I closed my eyes and muttered, “I think it’s more appropriate now.”

“Eve,” Mindseye said carefully, almost as though testing the name. She frowned then held something out to me. It was a small card…a business card. “This is the number for a good therapist…one who has experience dealing with our kind of business. Please talk to her. You need to talk to someone.”

I held the business card in my hand but didn’t bother looking at it. I had absolutely no intention of going to see any kind of shrink.

“Just take care of them,” I told her before pulling the cloak around me and stepping into the Empty.

I felt ridiculous as I sat in front of the mirror and looked over my reflection. I thought I looked like a clown, though admittedly, my third try at putting on makeup was much better than my first two. However, I knew that I'd still have to practice a good deal more before I'd feel comfortable showing up in public with any of that stuff on.

Of course, there were other things that made me feel awkward and uncomfortable as well. I was currently wearing a blouse that revealed a bit more cleavage than the t-shirts I had been wearing up until now and I even had on a pair of high heels which I'd been practicing in for most of the morning but still had difficulty walking in.

It felt more than a little strange for me to actively try being more feminine. Of course, there were several good reasons that I was doing so, or at least reasons that made sense to me.

The most important reason was that I'd been ignoring and neglecting my new body before so this was my attempt to confront it face on and deal with the fact that I was no longer a man. This was my attempt to try dealing with the fact and accepting that I was now female. Another reason which was quite important was that this was...this had been Amelia's body and I owed it to her to treat it as she'd like to have it treated. She would have wanted it to look its best.

Those reasons were completely true but there was another reason as well, one that I didn't want to admit even to myself. I'd spent nearly a week ignoring my body and focusing intently on getting revenge on Loki and now I was doing the opposite. I was distracting myself from my failure to beat Loki by focusing instead on my other problems...or my other 'challenges' as I was trying to think of them.

"I'm going to figure this out," I muttered, focusing on my makeup with all the attention to detail that I used to give the files on villains I loaded into the Seven's computer system. "How difficult can this be?'

I took a wet towel and wiped all the makeup off and then went to work putting it all back on. I took my time and was careful, trying hard to keep a light touch since I didn't want to look like a clown again. When I was finished, the results were a little better than the last time but still needed work.

By my fifteenth attempt, I was satisfied with the results of my experimentation, at least enough that I felt I could go out in public without shaming Amelia or myself. Still, I held my hands up and looked at the nails or at least the ones on my left hand, thinking that Amelia would definitely have gone to get a manicure by the time they looked like this.

"I can't believe that's me," I said with a sigh as I looked back into the mirror. At the moment, I looked more like the Amelia I knew than any other time since ending up in her body.

I was just trying to decide whether to do another practice run on my makeup or try doing something about my nails when the doorbell began to ring. I paused to listen to it for a moment, already knowing that it was Becky. She was the only one who would possibly be visiting me.

"Great," I said with a sigh and a roll of my eyes. "Can't she leave me alone?"

However, in spite of that the truth was that I kind of liked it when she came over. Becky was a good kid who kind of reminded me of better days and actually made me smile a little. Anymore, that was a difficult thing for me to come by.

"Becky," I greeted at the door and let her in, noticing the stubborn look on her face and wondering what she was after this time.

"I know who you are," Becky blurted out once I closed the door.

"Do you?" I asked, feeling slightly amused. Somehow, I doubted that she had any idea at all of who I really was...or at least of who I used to be.

Becky suddenly held up a picture of the Seven which looked to have been printed from a computer and then pointed to Vesper. "You're her... You're Vesper."

I winced at that, more than a little tired of everyone who saw me assuming that I was Vesper. "No," I told Becky sadly, "I'm not Vesper."

"Bullshit," Becky exclaimed with a smirk. "You look just like her and have the same powers..."

"And I told you that I knew the Seven," I added with a sigh, closing my eyes and wishing I'd kept my mouth shut. "But I am not Vesper."

"I looked up everything I could about the Seven," Becky told me, giving me a very skeptical look. She obviously didn't believe me. "You even have this guy’s cape...the Traveler..."

"His cloak," I corrected her with a faint smile. Then I held up my metal arm and said, "And this used to be an umbrella." She looked confused even after I pointed at the picture of the Umbrella.

"An umbrella?" she asked, now looking even more skeptical. I didn't blame her since it was hard to believe.

"It was a magic umbrella," I told her with a weak chuckle. "It was a sword for the guy who had it before him. It turns into whatever weapon you need most when you first pick it up. He didn't need a weapon, just an umbrella to stay dry." Then I looked at my arm again and winced before adding, "And I'd just had my arm cut off..." With that, I stretched my fingers into claws and let her watch, her eyes going wide as they turned sharp and curved. "It does make a good weapon though."

"Wow," Becky exclaimed. Then she told me, "But I still know you're Vesper...even if you are changing your name."

"No," I told her sadly, "I'm not Vesper." I frowned for a moment, wondering how I could explain to her without actually telling her.

"Then who are you?" Becky demanded, holding up the picture and practically shoving it in my face.

"I'm not in there," I pointed out. "I was never officially part of the team." Then I paused for a few seconds before saying, "It’s sort of complicated, but you could say I'm Vesper's sister."

"Oh," Becky responded with a nod. "I guess that makes sense then..."

"Do you want something to drink?" I asked Becky to change the subject.

Before Becky even answered me, I went to the kitchen and paused at the doorway, giving the fridge an intent look as I used my telekinesis to open the door and then make a couple cans of pop fly out and across the room to my hand. Becky gasped in awe while I smiled faintly. I was showing off but couldn't really help it. After spending years in awe of other people who were using their developed powers, I finally had a chance to do a little showing off myself.

"Here," I said, handing Becky a can of Fresca while I opened another for myself. Before all this happened, I used to tease Amelia for drinking this stuff, saying that it was little more than carbonated water. I'd always been more into Mountain Dew and Red Bull myself but since I was trying to treat my new body better I had decided to try developing some healthier food habits.

"Thanks," Becky said, giving me a grin and adding, "I guess you're not a total bitch."

"Just mostly," I responded wryly.

"It must be great being able to do that," Becky said, pointing her finger at the fridge and looking as though she was trying to concentrate. She gave up after a few seconds and shrugged. "It must be like having a remote control to do anything."

"It does have its uses," I agreed, frowning as I remembered how Amelia had always tried not to rely too much on her telekinesis when not on duty. She hadn't wanted to get lazy and had joked about how easy it would have been to turn into a couch potato.

Becky plopped down on my couch and looked at the TV which was turned on and set to a news channel. "You're not going to go running after some bad guy again are you?"

"It depends," I shrugged. "If I find the right bad guy...yes."

Becky watched me silently for nearly a minute before quietly saying, "I saw the video online of your fight with that guy..."

I frowned, having seen the video she was talking about. There were actually two videos that had been taken by witnesses from their camera phones and I'd watched both of them. Neither were very good quality and they both stopped around the time Loki had sent the flood after me. In fact, I'd watched both videos about at least a dozen times, trying to see what I could have done better in preparation for my next fight with Loki before I finally had to distract myself with something else.

"He was kind of scary," Becky said.

"Yeah, he is," I admitted, remembering the terror I'd felt when I first arrived and saw him there. "He's very powerful but can't really control it all. It makes him very unpredictable and dangerous."

Becky shuddered slightly and told me, "I don't think I ever want to see him for real... I don't think I want to be your sidekick if I have to meet guys like him."

"Smart move," I responded with a wry smile. It wasn't as though I'd ever even considered making her into my sidekick or mascot. No one knew how dangerous that kind of thing was better than I did and there was no way I wanted to put anyone in that kind of danger.

“So what do you do for fun?” Becky asked me curiously. “I like to make model cars. My sister says that only boys make model cars though.”

“I used to play video games for fun,” I told her with a sigh. “I don’t really do much for fun now…” In fact, it was hard to imagine ever having fun again.

“Video games are great,” Becky exclaimed. “What’s your favorite?” Then she paused to add, “My sister says only boys play video games too…”

“I used to play with my best friend,” I told Becky, thinking of Karen and the many hours we spent playing. “She was fun to play against but I always lost.” I shrugged and added with a wry smile, “It’s hard to beat someone with developed reflexes.”

“Cool,” Becky gasped. “But it doesn’t sound very fair.”

“That’s what I always said,” I muttered.

Becky took a long drink of her Fresca then looked around for a moment. “So,” she said finally, “Do you have anything planned for the day?” She grinned excitedly and added, “I mean, are you going to go stop some bad guys or maybe get revenge on that guy…”

“Not today,” I told her with a faint smile.

“Then what?” she asked.

I held up my left hand and looked at my nails before impulsively saying, “I think I might get a manicure…”

“I’ve never had one of those,” Becky responded with an expression that seemed to indicate both interest and disdain at the same time. Of course, she was a bit of a tomboy which I thought might explain a few things.

“Me either,” I admitted. Then on another impulse, I asked, “You want to come along?”

Becky hesitated a moment before shrugging, “Sure.”

Then something else dawned on me and I added, “If your parents don’t mind that is…”

“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Becky. “They won’t mind as long as I’m back before dinner.”

A short time later, we were riding a bus down town while Becky kept asking why I hadn’t just teleported us there. After explaining for the second time that this would probably draw a little too much attention when we arrived, I just sat back and let her continue asking.

“I thought this would be my chance to see what it was like,” Becky complained even as we got off the bus right in front of our destination.

There was a manicure shop right there though I had no idea if it was any good or not. Since I’d never had a manicure before I suppose it didn’t really matter.

I felt a bit awkward as I went inside the shop and if I’d been here by myself I probably would have just turned around and left. However, Becky was here with me so it was too late to back out now. I’d committed myself.

“I can’t believe I’m getting a real manicure,” Becky exclaimed as she took her seat. “My sister is going to be so jealous.”

I just smiled faintly and hid my self-consciousness as the manicurist went to work on my nails. However, I had to admit that I was a little curious if nothing else.

As I patiently sat there, my nervousness wore off and was soon replaced by boredom. I watched curiously as the woman worked on my cuticles and then filed and buffed my nails, finishing with a light coat of polish. She gave me an odd and somewhat nervous look when she saw my metallic right hand until I told her that she only needed to take care of the left.

Once she was through, I looked at my nails, thinking that Amelia would have approved. It felt just a little strange to think that I’d just gone through that, one of the things that most men never did. However, as I looked at my nails, I had to admit that I kind of liked the way they looked.

“This is awesome,” Becky told me with a grin, showing off her own nails which had small flowers painted on them. “I think I can do that again.”

For a moment, I just watched Becky with a faint smile, thinking that she didn’t look quite as much of a tomboy now though she still had a way to go before she was a girly girl. However, she was young and had plenty of time to decide who she was going to be. In a way, I felt a strange sort of envy for that.

“Me too,” I told her, looking at my nails one more time. “Me too.”

I scowled in frustration as I paced back and forth over the living room, dressed up in my costume so that I would be ready to go at a moment’s notice. I'd taken yesterday off from my search for Loki and now I was making up for it. Now I was determined to hunt that bastard down and k1ll him. This time I was going to get him.

Yesterday had been almost relaxing, a nice break from the stress of my mission. It had been a chance for me to explore my feminine side a little and perhaps even help me accept my new gender a little more as well. However, I was paying for that today with an extra load of guilt for having forgotten my goal for even a moment.

"I can't get distracted," I told myself grimly. "I won't."

However, in spite of my determination to stay focused only on finding Loki, I couldn't help but thinking about yesterday and the time I'd spent with Becky. On one hand, she was a nosy kid who could be annoying and get in the way, but on the other, it was kind of nice to hang out with her. It had almost been like having a kid sister which was a novel experience for me since I'd been an only child. I suppose there was a certain irony in this since Amelia had almost been like a big sister to me at times and now I was taking over that role along with her body.

I knew that Amelia would have been amused by the idea of me trying to act as any sort of big sister or role model to a teenage while Karen would have laughed her ass off and used it as ammunition to tease me with. In fact, I could hear Karen's taunts in my mind which made me smile faintly but also feel incredibly sad at the same time.

I absently reached down and felt the spot on my belt where the disk containing my friends had previously rested. I felt more vulnerable without them there but it was for the best. Doctor Power could be trusted to get them out of stasis and notify their families. This way there was no chance they'd be lost for good if I failed.

"I won't fail," I told myself firmly. "Not again."

With that, I went back to the computer and went through the various sites that I'd been tracking. When I was looking at one message board that tracked developed activities I noticed a new message that immediately caught my attention. Someone in Chicago reported that they'd just seen a costumed man dressed in red who had a red cloak. However, there was no picture and no other details other than the location of where he'd been seen.

"It could be Loki," I muttered, knowing at the same time that there was a good chance it wasn't. After all, Loki certainly wasn't the only person to run around in a red costume that included a cape or cloak. "Damn." I shook my head, knowing that I couldn't take the chance. I had to go see for myself just in case.

Of course, there was one small problem with my going to investigate. I'd never been to Chicago before much less where this guy was spotted and unless I had a good idea of where I wanted to go the cloak couldn't lead me there. The only exception I'd seen for this before had been when it led me to the Traveler's safe house in the Empty. Fortunately, I was able to quickly come up with a solution. I entered the address into Google Earth which showed a satellite view and zoomed in until I had a good view of where I wanted to go.

"That should do it," I said, feeling a faint stirring of satisfaction at solving that problem.

A moment later I pulled the cloak tight around me and then stepped into the Empty. I looked around the vast never ending emptiness and felt just a little lost and agoraphobic. After all, every direction looked exactly the same and there wasn't even a single landmark to give me bearings. But at the same time, there was a sense of safety in knowing that I had this whole world all to myself.

I took one long look and then shook my head before starting in the direction where I sensed the nearest crossover point. Fortunately, it wasn't very far away. It still amazed me that teleporting over large distances would require so much walking. I was afraid that one day I'd spend too long just walking through the Empty and that I'd arrive too late. I know that it had happened to the Traveler and that I'd be pissed if Loki got away from me because of it.

When I reached the crossover point, I peeked through the walls of reality to see what I was getting into before I stepped across. I saw no sign of Loki or anyone else in costume which could be either a good sign or bad depending on your view. On one hand, it meant he wasn't causing complete and total chaos right here but it could also mean that whoever was spotted here had already gotten away. However, there was only one way to know so I stepped back into the real world and then immediately used my telekinesis to keep myself from falling since I'd just appeared about sixty feet above the ground.

"Sometimes I wonder how Traveler managed," I mused to myself though I already knew the answer. He'd either look for crossover points at ground level or he'd just open small openings to the Empty beneath his feet, giving him the illusion of walking on air and letting him get to the ground on these cross dimensional steps. Levitating myself via telekinesis was much easier.

I remained where I was for a moment, looking around and watching the people going about their business on the street. None of them seemed to be looking up or noticing me which was fine by me. In fact, I preferred it that way at the moment.

I started to circle for a better view, moving at a decent pace though I was actually much slower than most flyers were capable of going. I know that that either the High Flying Flag or the White Knight would have been able to fly circles around me, but at the same time, the Umbrella used to move just a little slower.

After circling for a minute and finding no sign of any other developed or even anyone in costume, I was about to give up. Either the person who'd reported the sighting had been wrong or whoever it was they saw had already moved on. Either way, this was a huge waste of my time.

“Damn,” I spat out in annoyance.

Just then, I heard the sound of gun shots from a short distance away. That immediately caught my attention and I flew there as fast as I could with my heart racing from a mixture of fear and excitement. Maybe...just maybe it was him.

It took me less than half a minute to reach my destination but in that time there had been several more gun shots as well as a scream of pain. I hovered above an alley and looked down on a scene that left me a little stunned as well as disappointed. I found the costumed figure who was dressed in red but he certainly wasn't Loki.

There was a man in the alley dressed entirely in dark crimson with a long flowing cloak that was a little tattered and torn. His costume was a bit loose and flowing but was of the same color. As for his face, I couldn't see anything but black beneath the hood. I suspected that he had a black full face mask on in order to create that effect. However, the most stunning thing about him was that he was standing in a pool of blood and was holding a katana that looked as though it was made of blood.

The man in crimson was not alone either. There were two men on the ground in front of him who looked to be dead as they were not moving and were the source of the blood. There were five other men as well, all of which were armed with either guns or knives and were dressed with matching bandannas and in a fashion that nearly screamed out 'gang'.

Suddenly, the man in crimson flung his katana at the men and it broke up as it left his hand, reforming into a bunch of throwing blades. His aim had been off though as only two of them were hit with the blades and neither seemed to be injured too badly. However, a moment later, blood suddenly began pouring out of the wounds and streaming into the air. Then the blood flowed right through the air and to the man in crimson, forming into the shape of a scythe in his hand while the two men both collapsed motionless to the ground, most likely dead from blood loss.

"Holy shit," I blurted out, suddenly knowing who the man in crimson was. "Bloodbath."

I'd never seen a picture of Bloodbath before but I had read his file and it had a good description of him listed. He was a brutal vigilante with a reputation for only going after murderers and for leaving a gruesome mess behind wherever he fights. He was some sort of hemokinetic, having the power to control blood and use it as a weapon. All he needed was for his opponent to be bleeding even a little and he could pull all of the blood right out of their bodies.

Only one of the three remaining gang members was holding a gun and he opened fire on Bloodbath who staggered back but didn't go down. I recognized the body language of someone who either had low grade invulnerability or was wearing some sort of body armor beneath his costume. The other two gang members were already moving in on Bloodbath, obviously planning on finishing him off with their knives but not seeming to realize that he wasn't hurt as bad as they thought. A moment later, he slashed out with his scythe and sliced through the stomachs of two of them.

"Holy shit," I exclaimed again, suddenly unsure of what I should do.

On one hand, Bloodbath was slaughtering these guys right before my eyes and I thought I should do something about this. But on the other, I knew that Bloodbath only went after known murderers...people who deserved to die...like Loki. He was doing to them exactly what I planned on doing to Loki.

Before I could make a decision, Bloodbath yanked all the blood from the two he'd just injured with his scythe and sent it all flying to the last member of the group as a bunch of spikes. A moment later, Bloodbath looked up and straight at me and suddenly all the blood went flying up into the air and formed a sort of blanked that hid not only Bloodbath from my view but nearly the entire alley. Just seconds later, the blood all fell back to the ground and splattered over everything, creating a gruesome mess that looked like it had come straight out of a horror movie. There was no sign of Bloodbath.

I just stared down at the alley, feeling sick to my stomach. There was a reason that Bloodbath had such a fearsome reputation among the criminals he hunted. He left scenes like this whenever he fought them, probably as a psychological warfare tactic. Unfortunately, it reminded me far too much of the scene Loki had left behind at the old headquarters.

"Where did he go?" I muttered, noticing that there were several ways out of the alley and he could have taken any of them.

I knew that I could stay and search for Bloodbath but I didn't think I wanted to do that. For one, I wasn't sure I even thought what he was doing was wrong anymore. After all, he was only taking down murderers...people who deserved it. For another, it wasn't my business. Loki was the one I was after not some vigilante. Still, the blood and bodies everywhere sent a cold chill down my spine and made me nauseous from the memories.

I stayed for just a few seconds more, cursingat the waste of my time since I hadn't found Loki like I'd hoped. After a shake of my head, I stepped back into the Empty to head for home.

I took a deep breath, trying to remain calm and focuses as a full dozen eggs floated in the air above my head. If I lost my concentration and dropped even one of the eggs I was going to be the one getting splattered. I'd emptied the carton and had been moving the eggs around telekinetically now for the last half hour, practicing my skill and control. It was difficult keeping so many eggs in the air at one time for so long, but that was how I knew I needed more practice with it.

Once I felt the pressure in my head indicating the beginning of a headache, I knew it was time to end my practice. I didn't want to push myself too hard right now or I might not be ready when I needed to be. I slowly started moving the eggs over to the table and lowering them back into their carton one at a time.

I was about halfway finished putting the eggs away when the phone suddenly began to ring. I was so startled by the distraction that I lost my concentration and the remaining eggs all fell and splattered all over the table. One of them even fell right into the carton and smashed two of the other eggs which had been returned safely.

"Damn," I spat out in annoyance, turning to glare at the phone.

Of course I already knew who was calling since Becky was the only one I'd given the number to. I'd done that just so she could call to make sure I wasn't in the middle of something before just showing up at the door...not that it had really workeduntil now. Other than her and myself, I was fairly sure that there was no one else still alive who had the number to the safe house.

"Hello Becky," I said as I picked up the phone.

"Hey Eve," Becky said from the other side. She sounded just a little odd, as though something was wrong. "I...I wasn't sure I should tell you.."

"What is it?" I asked, trying to contain my impatience.

"I know you don't watch this channel," Becky said carefully. "Change your TV..."

I frowned, growing more curious as I went to change the TV to the channel Becky had provided. It was a national news channel that I didn't really track for several reasons, but as soon as I switched over to that channel I froze and gasped. There was a clear picture of Loki throwing a huge ball of fire at a crowd of people.

The video footage obviously came from a helicopter and ended as soon as Loki noticed it and attacked it. The footage ended at that point and the news anchor came on saying that this had happened just a couple minutes ago and there was no longer any new footage. They then ran the footage they had again.

"Loki," I gasped, feeling the burning rage bubbling to the surface again.

This news channel was well known for showing footage of developed fights taken from the safety of their news choppers but I hadn't bothered watching the channel because they usually only did this around Los Angeles and I had been expecting Loki to strike in the Northwest again. It seemed that this time I was wrong and would have missed Loki entirely if Becky hadn't warned me.

"Please be careful," Becky said over the phone, sounding worried. "I don't want you to die." And with that, she hung up on me.

I set the phone down, muttering, "I owe you one Becky."

I immediately got ready to go which only required me to grab my cloak since I was already wearing the rest of my costume. My heart raced with a mixture of nervousness and excitement as I finally had another chance at Loki. I knew that I'd have to hurry though because his attacking Los Angeles would get a lot of attention and probably a fast super hero presence. I'd be absolutely pissed and utterly devastated if someone else took him down before I had a chance. That was why I couldn't hesitate or delay.

A moment later, I was in the Empty and running towards the nearest cross point as fast as I could. That still wasn't fast enough to suit me so I used my telekinesis to lift myself in the air and fly which increased my speed a little more. I didn't even bother stopping to look ahead before I crossed back over into the real world.

I arrived in the air above Los Angeles, probably near where the helicopter had been when it had been destroyed. A single look below me showed me plenty of evidence of Loki's power as well as a realization that he'd even exceeded the destruction that he'd left behind in Portland.

There was a giant vine that looked like it could have come straight out of Jack and the Beanstalk, but instead of growing straight up, it had grown around a building and crushed it. There was another building that was half missing, not just shattered or in ruins but completely missing. It was as though the building had been sliced in half vertically with a giant razor blade and then one half had simply been taken away.

Then as I lowered myself closer to the ground, I saw at least a dozen statues of people who looked like they were running away in terror. Unfortunately, I was pretty certain that these weren't really statues. There were other signs of Loki's power as well...lots of them.

"He's on a rampage," I spat out coldly. "He's escalating it..."

Going on rampages seemed to be a common activity for most villains, or at least most with the thug mentality. They would cut loose with their power and destroy everything around them, often using a bank robbery or revenge against someone as an excuse. The truth was, they just wanted to show off how powerful they were...to get attention and reputation. This was how villains often earned a name for themselves.

Heroes might claim to be above this kind of thing but they did it in a way too. Heroes showed off their power and earned their names by going after the villains. Sure, heroes would be stopping the villains but they would also often cause unnecessary damage in the process of grandstanding. There seemed to be something about having power that demanded you show it off.

Loki was one of those villains who liked going on rampages, causing random destruction wherever he went. He'd done it in Portland as well as the first couple times the Seven had encountered him. Unfortunately, I could see that each time he did he would escalate it...getting more wild and more destructive. And now that he'd murdered the Seven he had become fearless and was practically begging for a chance at more heroes.

It only took me a moment to find Loki among the chaos. He was floating in the air, sending a small blizzard a group of civilians who were merely trying to run away. I seethed in anger at what he was doing to them, at what he'd done to so many. Then I grimaced in determination and went straight for him. This time was going to be different. This time Loki was going to die.

I gave the mental order for my arm to change configuration and then it changed slightly with the red disk appearing on the back of my hand. I held my arm out and fired right at Loki's back, deciding to take him down as fast as possible. It wasn't very heroic but as I'd repeatedly told Becky, I was no hero.

Loki became aware of my presence because he turned in time to see my attack and dove to the side. It seemed that he wasn't very maneuverable hovering in the air but he was able to move enough to avoid being hit...barely. I fired another shot but a glowing disk of red light appeared between us and blocked my attack.

"You again," Loki exclaimed, looking more annoyed than anything. "I thought I killed your fucking ass."

"I'm the living dead," I responded coldly. "I'll crawl out of the grave as many times as it takes to get you."

Then I held up my arm as if to attack him again but instead, I used my telekinesis to grab hold of him and send him flying back as hard as I could, planning to smash him into the wall of a building. However, at the last moment, he suddenly vanished and reappeared a short distance away, no longer under my telekinetic hold. Of course, that could be easily rectified.

I tried to grab hold of Loki with my power again but his time he was ready and a shimmering glow appeared around him, somehow keeping me from touching him at all with my power, at least not directly. I changed tactics and started throwing small pieces of debris at him and the first one hit him and seemed to do some damage. However, he muttered something and everything else I was holding in the air suddenly became a hundred times heavier and I had to let go of it all. A half dozen chunks of super heavy building rubble all fell to the ground at once and put holes in the concrete.

"Smash her," Loki called out.

I was stunned to see a giant anvil of all things suddenly appear a short distance above me. I gasped in surprise since it was larger than an RV. Then I realized I had to get out of there immediately as it began to fall the moment after it was summoned. I wrapped myself in my cloak and slipped into the Empty just a second before I would have been hit. I watched the anvil pass from between the veil of worlds and then stepped back when it was safe.

"An anvil?" I demanded. "What...do you get your magic from Acme now?"

Then I fired an energy blast at Loki but it suddenly changed direction and made a u-turn, coming straight back at me. I barely turned in time for it to hit my cloak and sent the blast to the Empty. The hole it had burned in the cloak immediately healed up again and looked as though it had never been touched.

"Fuck you b1tch," Loki yelled. Then he grinned evilly and exclaimed, "BOOM!"

I cringed as I heard that, remembering the damage he'd caused in Portland by yelling the same thing. However, there was no explosion that I could see...just a massively deafening sonic 'BOOM' which caused every window in every buildings nearby to shatter at the same time. I lost my concentration and fell to the ground, hitting hard and covering up my ears. However, I wasn't the only one as Loki had fallen and was holding his ears too.

I quickly got to my feet though I staggered, feeling extremely dizzy and nauseous. That sonic boom had done a job on my equilibrium though thankfully I wasn't the only one. I took a deep breath, trying to regain my balance enough so that I could take advantage of this to get Loki while he was distracted, but then I noticed I wasn't alone.

"What the hell," I gasped in surprise.

There was a man standing just a short distance away from me, watching the whole scene with an expression of amused interest. He was tall and thin with shoulder length black hair that was all combed back. He was wearing a black suit that actually had black lace from the sleeves and which looked as though it might have been something worn by a funeral director back in the Victorian era. To add to his strangeness, he leaned on a black cane and wore a pair of round sun glasses that were dark enough to completely hide his eyes.

"You've got to get out of here," I snarled at the man who seemed oblivious to the danger he was in.

"Don't mind me," he responded in a raspy voice. "I am merely an observer to your altercation."

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" I demanded angrily, quickly glancing to Loki to make sure he wasn't about to attack. "You could get killed."

"Perhaps...perhaps not," the man in black told me with a faint smile. "You see, I am a talent scout of sorts." He paused to give me a speculative look before adding, "You do have a certain potential. I should dearly love to see you reach it."

Just then, Loki screamed, "I know who you are now you fucking bitch. You may be wearing Traveler's cloak but I recognize you Vesper... I thought I'd killed you with the rest of the Seven..."

"I'm not Vesper," I snarled at him, all my hate and rage bubbling up even stronger. "You did kill her... You killed me too."

I grimaced and opened fire with my hand, firing several blasts which all sort of just vanished before they actually hit him. I was burning with rage and was determined to destroy him utterly. I fired another blast but it vanished the same way, leaving the red circle on the back of my hand halfway gone and I still hadn't even touched him.

Then I remembered the man in black who'd been standing near me. I realized that he could have been hurt during my exchange with Loki so I turned to look at him but found he was gone. I quickly looked around but saw no sign of him. I was relieved at that because I didn't need him getting in my way.

I turned my attention back to Loki and started using my power to throw debris at him again, hoping that I could get through and hit him this time. Unfortunately, a giant spider web suddenly appeared between us and everything I'd just thrown at him was caught in the web. The web vanished a moment later and it all fell back to the ground. Loki was REALLY pissing me off.

"Destroy her," Loki exclaimed.

I was immediately aware of the ground around me getting extremely hot and launched myself straight up, just in time to avoid the explosion that had come from right beneath where I'd been standing. The ground there was now a smoldering crater.

For a brief moment, I considered what I was going to try next since nothing else had worked. But suddenly, the ground beneath Loki began to move and it didn’t seem to be his doing since he looked shocked. Then as I watched, the ground around him rose up, forming a giant hand that was made of concrete and which then grabbed hold of him.

“What the hell?” Loki gasped in surprise.

“That would be my doing,” a new voice said.

I looked towards the source and saw Lady Hexx walking towards Loki. Her hood and cloak were pulled back so I had a better look at her costume than I had the last time we’d met. Her costume was a one piece green uniform that went to her shoulders but dropped low to reveal a lot of cleavage and which also left her hands bare. Around her neck, I could see a black choker with a green stone set in it.

“I thought it was time to end this before anyone else got hurt,” Lady Hexx said, looking just a little smug.

All I could do was glare at Lady Hexx, furious that she’d interfered in my fight with Loki…that she’d taken away my revenge. I clenched my fists, wanting to lash out at her for doing that. It would be so easy to blast her and then finish Loki off. After all, that was what I was here for. Nothing else mattered except stopping that monster once and for all.

But then Loki snarled, “Get me out of this thing…”

Suddenly, the stone hand exploded and pieces of it were thrown in every direction away from Loki. I was far enough away that none of them hit me but Lady Hexx wasn’t so lucky. One piece hit her in the shoulder and she screamed as she was thrown back.

“Destroy them,” Loki exclaimed as he held his staff up. “No… Destroy this whole fucking city.”

“Oh shit,” I gasped, not liking the sound of that. I didn’t think Loki even had the power to destroy a city the size of Los Angeles, but I imagined that he’d cause a LOT of death and destruction trying.

A moment later, an enormous figure began appearing in the middle of the street. I could only stare in shock and horror as an actual dragon actually appeared out of thin air. It was huge, with just its head being the size of an SUV. Its whole body was covered with thick looking red and black mottled scales and the enormous wings which sprouted from its back looked like they would be about the size for a 747.

“Oh shit,” I said again, my mind too numb to even think of something else to say.

“Holy shit that’s big,” Loki exclaimed and began laughing manically.

For a few seconds I just stared at the dragon in stunned disbelief. I'd had absolutely no idea that Loki was capable of summoning up something so large. From the way he was reacting, I suspected that he hadn’t realized he could either.

Just then, the dragon opened its mouth but instead of breathing fire as I would have expected, it spat out a spray of green liquid which hit the side of one building. Just seconds later, the stone side of the building began to steam and melt. This wasn't a fire breathing dragon that Loki had summoned but an acid breathing one.

The dragon abruptly turned and its long tail swung and caught Loki who was sent flying backwards. I would have laughed at that, especially as Loki staggered to his feet with a long stream of curses. However, the Dragon was heading down the street and towards the civilian crowds that hadn't gotten far enough away after Loki's arrival.

I stared at Loki, suddenly realizing just how easily it would be to take him now that he was distracted. I clenched my fists, feeling the burning rage that was demanding to be unleashed on him. Then I looked at the dragon, knowing that the countless people in its path were in incredible danger. It had to be stopped. My friends would NEVER forgive me if I stood back and let innocents get killed...no matter how good the reason. And truthfully, I'd never forgive myself either.

"DAMN!" I exclaimed, grimacing in frustration as I turned and flew straight at the dragon.

"Hey you," I yelled at the dragon, firing several blast at the back of its head to get its attention.

The dragon snapped its head around and spat out a spray of the thick green acid. I'd been expecting this though and stepped through into the Empty before it could hit me. My cloak might be able to protect me a bit and even regenerate from damage, but I had a feeling that if I got soaked with that stuff it would be the end of the both the cloak and me. I stepped back over into reality and stared at its large toothy mouth.

"Damn you've got nasty breath," I muttered, knowing that I had to do something about that acid breath. A quick glance to the building that it had had hit with that last blast revealed that the whole side of it was in the process of dissolving. I had to figure out some way to keep it from spitting acid.

Then I suddenly had an idea. I reached for one of the blue gems on my arm guardand summoned a metal sphere into my hand. I had to fly out of the way as the dragon fired another spray of acid, then before it could close its mouth I threw Armory's grenade into the opening. The grenade went off but it didn't explode in the traditional way. Instead, a large amount of thick black tar was released, having been donated by Morass and stored in a pocket of folded space until now.

The dragon had instinctively closed its mouth but now tried to open it again only to find that it had been effectively glued shut. It would have been funny if this creature wasn't still enormous and extremely dangerous. Then it looked at me, glaring at me with those black eyes full of a malevolent intelligence as well as recognition.

I stared into the dragon's eyes, realizing that those were the same black eyes and evil presence that I'd seen in that clown gorilla...and the creature that had cut off my arm and murdered my friends. A cold chill ran down my spine as I suddenly realized that in spite of appearances, this was in fact the very same being.

Everything I knew about Loki suddenly came rushing in and I realized just how little sense some of it made. Now, all the pieces started to assemble themselves and gave me a whole new picture and a new understanding of how his powers really worked. We'd always thought Loki was some sort of sorcerer, but he certainly didn't act like a sorcerer. Instead of casting spells, he just ordered things to happen and they did...sort of. It was almost as though his staff was the genie lamp from one of those old Arabian Knight stories. He would give the genie, demon, or whatever it was a command and it would carry it out.

If my theory was correct, then from what I could see it appeared this particular being didn't like taking orders and seemed to especially hate being micromanaged which was why it kept backfiring against Loki...except when those commands happened to suit its goals. And from what I could tell, those goals were just to cause destruction and chaos...explaining why Loki could cause so much of both without his power backfiring against him. I could also guess that this creature liked taking the opportunity to come out and act directly rather than having to rely on Loki's commands.

I wonder if Loki even knew this was the same creature he summoned each time. Loki was dangerous but not particularly bright so I wouldn't be surprised if he had no idea. Of course, this was all assuming my theory was correct but I was pretty confident it was.

Just a minute ago, this dragon was a major threat but had been just another manifestation of Loki's magic. Now this dragon was a true enemy and this fight had suddenly become very personal indeed.

"DIE," I screamed, holding out my hand and firing a blast of energy right into its eyes. I figured that if it had a soft and vulnerable spot, that would be it.

I fired several more blasts until the circle on the back of my hand went completely black. When it did, my entire arm suddenly went dead as well. I couldn't feel or move it at all. My entire right arm just hung lifelessly from my shoulder.

"Shit," I exclaimed, suddenly realizing the problem of using all the power for my blasts. There was nothing left to actually run my arm.

The dragon couldn't open its mouth and was now effectively blind. It was rolling on the ground, smashing its head into a building as though trying to clear out the tar or restore its vision. I wanted to keep attacking it while it was down, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough firepower to do much. As much as I hated to admit it, I really needed help.

I turned my attention back to Lady Hexx, wondering why she hadn't been helping. She was back where I'd left her, getting to her feet but holding her arm and wincing in obvious pain. Loki was slowly making his way towards her but she gestured to him and he began to sink into the concrete as though it was quick sand. Once he was about waist deep, it all hardened again and left him trapped.

I landed beside Lady Hexx, thankful to be able to release the telekinesis that had been holding me aloft since I had developed a nice little headache. Then I noticed that Lady Hexx was bleeding badly from her shoulder. A part of me absently wondered how her blood could be red but her skin pure white with none of the color coming through. However, I was certainly no expert in developed physiology and quickly shoved that thought aside as unimportant.

"Are you all right?" I asked her, suddenly feeling guilty for my earlier anger towards her and for neglecting her after she'd been injured. After all, she'd saved my life in Portland and had shown up here to help too.

"I think I broke my collar bone," Lady Hexx said with a wince of pain. "I can't feel my arm..."

"Same here," I muttered in response, glancing towards Loki and then the dragon. "Do you think you can help?"

"No," Lady Hexx responded with a shake of her head and a grimace. "I hurt too much to focus much..."

Just then, Loki teleported out from where he was stuck in the ground and reappeared a short distance away. "Lock them up," he exclaimed.

Suddenly, a metal cage appeared around us. I looked at the metal bars and then the metal roof, scowling as I did so. I could see Loki smirking through the bars and taunting us about how he could take his time killing us. I barely paid him any attention though as I looked down and realized that this cage didn't have a floor. I concentrated with my power and pushed up with everything I had. It was difficult lifting this much weight but I did, throwing the cage up and off us. My head pounded even more from the exertion.

"I'll just let the dragon eat you," Loki said, glancing at the dragon that’d gotten back to its feet and was slowly coming towards us, apparently no longer blinded from my attacks. And with that, Loki suddenly teleported away again, appearing a short distance away, probably just to give the dragon enough room to get us without getting him in the process.

The dragon opened its mouth to let out a roar and green slime dribbled from its jaws. I gulped in fear, realizing that it had used its acid to burn through the tar. Now it was free to use that nasty acid breath again.

"Go get those bitches," Loki called out to the dragon.

The dragon sprayed his green death at us but I grabbed Lady Hexx and yanked us both into the Empty. She looked around in confusion and surprise while I peeked through the veil of realities to see how much damage had been done. The area where we'd been standing had dissolved into a small crater and the dragon was starting to turn away, probably sure that we were dead. Unfortunately, that now meant that it was going to go after the civilians.

"Where are we?" Lady Hexx demanded through clenched teeth.

"Come on," I told her, wrapping my cloak around her and pulling us both back to reality. I had to immediately use my telekinesis to keep us both from dropping into the hole that was still coated with remnants of the acid. I moved us both to the side where it was safe, grimacing at the headache and then letting us drop to the solid ground with a sigh. "I'd kill for some Excedrin..."

"They're still alive," Loki yelled. "DIE!"

Suddenly, a swarm of metal bees appeared in the air, each one of them about the size of a humming bird. They came at us with nasty looking stingers but then every one of them suddenly crumbled to dust and fell to the ground around us. I was just as startled at that as Loki was until I noticed Lady Hexx smirking.

"Hard to use my powers," she told me grimly. "Not impossible." Then she chuckled faintly and added, "I'm beginning to see why you hate this guy."

"Do you have enough to help against him?" I asked, pointing to the approaching dragon. I think it was taking its time in order to terrify is both even more. It was working.

"I wish," Lady Hexx muttered.

I was bracing for another attack from the dragon but suddenly the air around it began to glow with a golden light. Seconds later, the dragon was wrapped up in layers of a thick and heavy chain which had appeared out of nowhere. It was made of some sort of golden colored metal and each link was the size of a tractor tire.

“What the hell?” I gasped in confusion, watching as the dragon struggled against the chains but only fell to the ground, too tied up to move much. I looked at Lady Hexx and asked, “Did you…?” However, she looked just as surprised as I was.

“That’ll cost about a week,” another woman’s voice said from above me.

I looked up and saw a woman floating in the air a short distance away. She had raven black hair and was wearing a rather skimpy looking violet costume that had some gold trim, including a gold metal belt and shoulder pads. She had had a violate cape which billowed behind her and was holding a gold metal staff with a purple crystal set in the head.

“Who are you?” Lady Hexx asked as the newcomer landed in front of us.

“Mystik,” I answered, recognizing the woman.

She gave me a look of surprise and asked, “Do I know you?”

“No,” I responded grimly, giving her a suspicious look as I added, “But I have heard of you.”

The truth is, I’d actually written Mystik’s file with the Seven and updated it with some other information I’d gained from Lightning Force and Faction Zero.

Mystik was a villain the first time I saw her, watching from the monitor room in the Seven’s headquarters as she and her Black Guild friends fought my friends. In fact, Mystik had been right there when Jessica…calling herself the Fallen had murdered the High Flying Flag…Matt.

Supposedly, Mystik had played a part in taking down the Black Guild and had even helped save the world. Ever since then, she’d been on the straight and narrow, acting as a hero. However, I couldn’t help but remembering that she’d not only been a villain but had played a part in Matt’s death.

“You’re hurt,” Mystik exclaimed, noticing Lady Hexx’s injury. “Shit, that looks bad…”

“You think?” Lady Hexx snapped in response.

Mystik nodded faintly and then stared intently at Lady Hexx’s shoulder. Suddenly, the purple gem on Mystik’s staff glowed faintly and all the blood on Lady Hexx vanished. At the same time, Lady Hexx let out a sigh of relief.

“It’s…better,” Lady Hexx exclaimed, pulling her hand away from her shoulder and revealing no sign of injury at all. She moved her arm and flexed her fingers. “It’s like I was never hurt.”

“That’s two,” Mystik muttered to herself.

“Thank you,” Lady Hexx told her with a nod. Then she gestured to Loki and added, “We still have him to deal with.”

“Deal with this,” Loki yelled, muttering something under his breath and then sending a blast of glowing green energy right at us.

Suddenly, the ground rose up and formed a wall which blocked the attack. Lady Hexx smiled faintly which looked sort of creepy considering her odd features.

“It appears that I am back in the game,” Lady Hexx said.

Mystik nodded, “I’m glad it was a good use of my magic.” She looked at the dragon and then Loki before asking, “Shall we finish taking care of them?”

“That sounds good to me,” I responded, thinking what a strange group we were. I was a former mascot teaming up with two former villains. I never would have imagined this before.

“My powers are limited now,” Mystik told us as she floated up into the air. “I’ve used up most of my power but I’ll do what I can.”

I used my telekinesis to lift myself up into the air as well while Lady Hexx merely stood still and the ground beneath her raised up, lifting her about ten feet into the air on a pillar made from concrete. All three of us moved apart but looked at Loki, knowing that with the dragon currently chained up, he was the big threat.

“BURN!” Loki exclaimed and suddenly the ground beneath us burst into flame. Loki looked annoyed, as though having expected us to all spontaneously combust. We all just lifted ourselves higher and avoided it. “Fuck.”

“Three against one,” Lady Hexx mused. “I think I prefer these odds.”

I nodded, knowing intellectually that this was to our advantage but I still felt annoyed that I actually needed help against Loki. I was supposed to take him down alone. This was supposed to have been my revenge. Unfortunately, I knew that this had gone beyond my ability to deal with by myself. I needed their help if I was going to stop Loki.

Loki muttered something and lightning suddenly shot down from the sky and smashed into the stone pillar where Lady Hexx had been standing. She’d jumped off in time to avoid being hit but Loki immediately followed this up with another attack, one that sent a blast of fire right at me. I just swept my cloak in front of me and sent it right into the Empty.

The ground around Loki suddenly began melting much as it had earlier though this time he teleported away before he could sink into the quick sand that the ground was becoming. Lady Hexx responded by making the ground sweep towards him in his new location almost as though it was a wave in the ocean. Loki was thrown backwards and hit the ground hard.

“Did you know that if you move molecules around fast enough,” Lady Hexx said, almost as though musing aloud, “you can create a lot of friction and a lot of heat?”

Suddenly the air around Loki began to heat up and I could even see the ripple waves from it. Loki gasped in obvious discomfort, perhaps fearing that Lady Hexx would make him spontaneously combust. I had a feeling that she could easily do that but was holding back so as not to kill Loki. I was grateful she didn’t since that left him for me to finish off.

“BOOM!” Loki called out again and suddenly the ground cracked open, creating a massive sink hole as all the stone and street fell away, leaving a gaping chasm that spread down the street. Several cards on the sides of the street fell down into the now gaping hole and Lady Hexx might have fallen as well if I hadn’t suddenly grabbed her with my telekinesis.

“Thanks,” she told me. “But I’ve got it from here. The ground rose up again to provide a platform for her to stand on.

Just then, there was a deafening roar from the dragon who was still struggling with the chain. He’d had gotten his head loose a bit and was now drooling that nasty green acid all over himself…and all over his chains. He turned to look at us for a moment and I was once again reminded of the intelligence that hid behind those bestial looks. He was trying to burn itself free.

“Oh shit,” I gasped as the chain links began to melt and dissolve. “It’s getting loose…”

Almost as if on cue, the dragon burst free from the chains and then shook loose the rest of the ones which had bound him. It let out another deafening roar and then blasted out with a spray of acid.

I telekinetically grabbed a bunch of debris and threw it up at once to catch and block the acid. Some of it got through but not much. All the debris fell back to the ground, already mostly dissolved away.

“Damn,” I winced at the headache, knowing that I couldn’t do this much more.

“I think I’ve got this one,” Lady Hexx said with a look of concentration.

Suddenly, the dragon began to sink into the ground while giant stone hands began to form from the streets and buildings in order to grab him and push him down into the sinking ground. However, he fought and broke free, spraying the hands with the acid and then sending another spray at us. This time we all scattered while Lady Hexx made walls rise from the ground to absorb as much of it as she could. However, there was less ground left to work with since Loki had sunk so much of it.

I grimaced, knowing that it was pointless to try throwing debris at the dragon since it would be like shooting spit balls. I was out of energy so couldn’t use my hand blaster and the throwing stars I still had on me weren’t likely to do anything either.

“Look out,” I pointed at the dragon as it started coming towards us again.

It was only then that I realized that I’d pointed with my right hand. I was able to move it again though it still felt a bit weak and sluggish. I absently noticed that it had reverted back to its normal arm mode when I hadn’t been paying attention.

“Do that chain thing again,” I called to Mystik.

“It won’t be enough,” she yelled back. “I have to conserve what magic I have left until it really matters.”

“Time to heat things up,” Lady Hexx said, gesturing to the dragon and I could see the temperature rising around it much as it had around Loki previously. However, this time she pushed it further and I could see the ground steaming and melting from the heat. But then, the dragon flapped his wings and suddenly took to the air, out of range. A moment later he spat another spray of acid down to the ground, spraying several buildings and causing their roofs to start dissolving.

“I don’t think that’s going to work,” I told Lady Hexx.

“Maybe stop all molecular movement instead,” Lady Hexx mused thoughtfully. “I just wish I could affect the dragon directly.”

I just glared at Mystik, wondering why she was being completely useless now. Before, she’d chained up the dragon with apparently no effort and then healed Lady Hexx. Both moves had been extremely useful but ever since she hadn’t been doing anything but floating in the air.

Mystik seemed to realize the same thing and suddenly flew straight at Loki. She hit at him with her staff while he blocked with his. The two of them fought, not using magic but just using their staffs as weapons. However, it was obvious that she was much more skilled. She spun her staff around and then hit his, sending it flying from his grasp.

“My staff,” Loki cried out in desperation.

“If you’re anything like me,” Mystik said, “You’ll want to keep your staff right at hand.” Then she hit him in the stomach and dropped him to the ground. “One problem solved.”

“And a damn big one to go,” I pointed out.

Just then, I noticed the stone and debris off to the side all melting and flowing together. I immediately recognized Lady Hexx’s handiwork though I couldn’t quite figure out what she was doing since that wasn’t where either Loki or the dragon where. Then all the rubble and debris began forming into a vaguely human shaped statue. A statue that was about forty feet tall and began walking towards the dragon.

“Damn,” I gasped, suddenly much more impressed by Lady Hexx’s powers.

I looked at Lady Hexx but she stood there motionless with a look of intense concentration on her face. I imagined that she had to be pushing herself to her limits to be doing this. I just wished I didn’t already have this pounding headache so I could do more.

“I hope this works,” I muttered, pulling out my shuriken and throwing them, pushing them along with my telekinesis and guiding them to fly straight at the dragon’s eyes. It kept moving its head though which made it difficult to actually hit them.

The giant statue that Lady Hexx was controlling marched to the dragon and grabbed hold of its neck. The statue held firm and tried wrestling the dragon to the ground. It held the head at such an angle that the dragon couldn’t quite hit it with the acid breath so this was just a matter of strength and leverage. Unfortunately, the dragon was still bigger and more powerful.

“I can keep him pinned down for a bit,” Lady Hexx said with a grimace. “But I can’t hold it long.”

“We need a way to kill that damn thing,” Mystik said. Then she gave an evil smile and said, “If you can keep him steady there I might be able to do it.”

Just then, the dragon broke free from the giant statue and sent it flying back where the dragon now had room to spray it with the acid breath. The statue was already dissolving but still came back towards the dragon. I knew that Lady Hexx could probably repair the statue, but not while keeping it together and fighting the dragon.

Suddenly there were screams from the building nearest the dragon and several people rushed out from the opening just as the building began to collapse. Three people had been hiding in the building and barely got out before it fell in on them. They tried running away from the dragon as fast as they could but unfortunately only caught its attention.

The dragon stared straight at the three people and opened his mouth to spray them with acid. Suddenly, all three of them vanished and I noticed that the violet gem on top of Mystik’s staff was glowing again.

“I sent them somewhere safe,” Mystik said, letting out a sigh. “Unfortunately, I’m all used up. I don’t have any magic left to fight that damn thing.”

“We need to find something that can destroy it,” Lady Hexx said firmly. “How many more people are in those buildings? Every second that thing is alive more people are at risk of being killed.”

I stared at the dragon that was still fighting the half dissolved statue. I pulled the throwing stars back to me, knowing that using them was useless. I needed something more powerful…more destructive. It was too bad that I’d lost Armory’s blaster because it would have been perfect right now.

“But I have another weapon,” I reminded myself grimly. One that I’d been too afraid to even try since it was so dangerous. However, I was desperate and had little to lose.

I reached for a blue gem on my arm guard and a moment later Hellshot’s bow appeared in my hand. I clutched it tightly, feeling my stomach knot as I thought about using it. The hellfire arrows this thing shot could burn through anything…probably even that dragons hide. However, if I couldn’t control it I’d probably destroy myself instead.

“No time for doubts,” I told myself firmly, knowing that I had no choice but to try. Hellshot would want me to.

I recalled everything I knew about the bow and what was required to use it. Hellshot had once told me that you needed rage or hatred to activate and call forth the hellfire. I had plenty of that. Unfortunately, he’d also told me that it took a certain calmness and sense of peace to actually control it. How could you possibly be both angry and calm at the same time? That was the trick that Hellshot had to master before he could master the bow. Now I would have to master it in a matter of moments or die trying.

I reached down for all the rage and hatred that I bore towards this creature, remembering that it had been the tool Loki had used to kill my friends. This being was the one who’d sliced my original body in two and then sliced off my arm in this one. It was more than easy to call forth the hatred.

The hellfire came with those emotions, pouring out from the demon’s rib bone that the bow had been carved from. I tried to remain focused and determined, to put the rage aside and focus on what needed to be done. This was the moment where the hellfire would run lose and incinerate me. Strangely enough, a part of me was fine with that. I should have died with the Seven. Everything I had been was already dead.

“Please help me Ben,” I whispered. “Please help me do this.”

Perhaps it was a miracle or maybe even Hellshot’s spirit guiding and protecting me but the hellfire didn’t spill out of control. Instead, it formed into the shape of an arrow just as I imagined. The bow normally had no string but once the arrow appeared so did the string, made of a tiny line of hellfire. I aimed straight at the dragon’s chest and released the arrow…as well as the breath I’d been holding.

The arrow shot through the air and hit the dragon right in the middle of its chest, immediately slicing through its armored scales and burning a hole through it that was much larger than the width of the arrow itself. A hole that was nearly a foot across appeared in its chest and the dragon roared and began smashing around, staggering uncontrollably. I felt a surge of excitement. For the first time, we'd really hurt the damn thing.

"That's for Ben," I exclaimed. Then I pulled back to form another arrow, feeling more confident after the success of the first. "This is for Amelia."

The second arrow hit the dragon a short distance from the first and it staggered back into a building, spraying out some acid that didn't seem to be aimed anywhere as it mostly hit the ground around it. Then the dragon began to start fading.

Just then, I noticed that Loki had taken advantage of our distraction to recover his staff. He held it clutched firmly in his hand and was glaring at us with an expression of hate. "I'm gonna kill you fucking bitches,"

"Impressive vocabulary," Mystik responded sarcastically.

Just then, the dragon let out another roar and raised his head to spit a large amount of that acidic green death high up into the air. A moment later, it faded away and vanished. However, I had little illusion about having killed the being behind the dragon. I'd seen that clown gorilla as well as the monster that’d sliced the Seven up vanish in the same way. Most likely, its current physical form had just been destroyed and it had returned to wherever it normally stayed...perhaps inside Loki's staff.

"Look out," Lady Hexx called out, making the ground suddenly raise up to form a shield between us and the acid that was about to come back down right on top of us. However, Mystik was standing a bit further away so I dove out from under the shield and towards her, sweeping my cloak up over the two of us as we crouched down. I didn't pull us into the Empty but my cloak would protect us from any stray acid drops that might otherwise hit.

"I already showed your friends in the Seven," Loki yelled out, "Now I have to remind you... Nobody fucks with Loki..."

The acid began splattering the ground, burning holes wherever it hit. I was sure one or two drops hit my cloak but I didn't feel it as any drops would be sent into the Empty and the holes sealed.

Then I heard Loki start screaming. I peeked out from my cover and saw that some of the acid had hit his arm right between the elbow and wrist. As I watched, his arm actually melted and dissolved. His staff hit the ground a moment later with his hand still attached.

As soon as the acid stopped falling around us, I got back up and looked around at the further devastation caused by the dragon's last act. Loki was on his knees, screaming in agony and clutching his bloody stump. Perhaps I should have felt at least a little sympathy for him since I'd gone through the same thing but I couldn't help but feeling amused instead.

"An eye for an eye," I said with grim satisfaction. "An arm for an arm."

"Thanks," Mystik told me. "I could have teleported away though..."

I didn't pay much attention to Mystik though as I started walking straight towards Loki. My hand had recovered a bit more and immediately reformed into the claw mode at my mental command. The dragon was gone and Loki had been defeated. Now there was nothing to keep me from killing that bastard.

"Loki," I spat out angrily, grabbing him by the throat with my clawed hand. My razor sharp fingers were right against the skin, drawing several drops of blood. All I had to do was close my hand.

Mystik started to step towards me but Lady Hexx held her back, keeping her distance and watching without a word. There was no look of judgment or condemnation, just one of understanding.

"You killed my friends," I told Loki bitterly. "You killed me. You slaughtered us like cattle..."

"Vesper," he started.

"I'M NOT VESPER," I yelled into his face, tightening my hand just a little more. "I've never been Vesper. You killed her along with everyone else..." Then I froze, seeing the look of fear and confusion in his eyes. "You don't know..." I glared at him in silence for a few more seconds before laughing bitterly, "You don't even know what you did... You have no idea what you did when you distracted us... You have no idea what you even did to the Seven before killing them."

"The Seven?" Mystik blurted out. "I've met the Seven..."

I ignored Mystik and kept my focus where it belonged, on Loki. "I'm just a remnant...a remnant of the Seven." I looked down at the swell of my breasts, at my cloak, and then at my black metal arm. "I'm like a Frankenstein monster made from what they left behind...created for the sole purpose of destroying you."

Then I finally noticed that Loki was no longer all there. He was terrified but he wasn't quite focused either and getting worse. It was the blood loss and shock. I knew that I should kill him now while he was still aware of the reason, before he passed out or even died on his own. It would be so easy...but I just couldn't do it...not when he was unarmed and completely helpless.

I thought of Bloodbath, knowing that he had the right way of dealing with people like Loki. He made sure that they could never harm anyone else ever again. He wouldn't hesitate to kill Loki right now, helpless or not. However, I couldn't help but remembering the scene of absolute carnage that Bloodbath had left behind. The memory brought a chill down my spine as I thought of just how gruesome that had been...and how much that alley had resembled Loki's handiwork.

"No," I whispered, throwing Loki to the ground as I shook with anger and disgust. I didn't want that...to be anything like Loki.

Then another fact occurred to me, one that I'd completely forgotten in my rage and need for vengeance. Killing helpless and unarmed people wasn't what the Seven did, no matter how evil they might be. The Seven had never been about trying to kill the bad guys and I suddenly realized that every one of them would have been ashamed of me if I did this.

For a moment I just stood there, shaking as I was caught between my need to finally get revenge for what he'd done and the knowledge that this wasn't what my friends would have wanted. I finally kicked Loki in the side, probably hard enough to crack a rib. Then I turned and walked away from him.

Lady Hexx immediately dropped to the ground beside Loki and began to put a tourniquet around his arm and give him the emergency medical help that would let him survive. She obviously had some training and practice as she was able to deal with him fairly quickly. I just stood back, trying not to watch since I was still hoping that he'd die anyway.

"If his powers are anything like mine," Mystik said, kicking the staff further away from Loki though there was little point since he was already out. "I'd keep him as far away from his staff as possible." She paused to stare at Loki's staff for a moment before adding, "I saw him running for it earlier rather than just summoning it to him so that probably shouldn't be too difficult."

"I think he'll live," Lady Hexx said as she got up from beside Loki.

I just muttered, "Pity," and didn't look at him.

"You know," Mystik said, looking at me and then Lady Hexx. "I thought we made a pretty good team."

"I suppose we did," Lady Hexx agreed with a faint smile. "But I've already got a team and they should probably be arriving before long to help clean up and dig any survivors out from the rubble." She gestured to all the damaged and destroyed buildings around us and I had a feeling that this would be a lot of work.

"I don't need any team," I told Mystik, my voice cracking as I said this.

Mystik just nodded and looked at Lady Hexx, saying, "I'd help if I could but I've used up all my power. In fact, I have to get going... I've only got a couple minutes left at most..."

"A couple minutes for what?" I asked.

Mystik didn't answer, only giving a mysterious smile before saying, "It was interesting to work with you two. I hope that if we ever meet again, it will be under better circumstances."

"Likewise," Lady Hexx responded while I nodded agreement.

Then Mystik looked at me and said, "I'm sorry to hear about the Seven. Things were complicated the one time I did meet them but I never would have wanted them hurt." Then she slammed the base of her staff into the ground and suddenly vanished in a flash of golden light.

Once Mystik was gone, Lady Hexx gently put a hand on my shoulder and said, "This isn't the revenge you'd planned...is it?"

"No," I answered grimly. I forced a smile and glared at Loki. "I'd planned for more blood."

"I understand," she told me and for the first time I think I believed her. "Think of it this way... He's broken...utterly defeated...and will be locked away forever with nothing to keep him company but the memory of how badly he lost."

I couldn't help but laughing faintly at that. "When you put it that way..."

"Trust me," Lady Hexx added with a smile. "It helps, especially when you remember that the idiot did it all to himself."

"I hope you're right," I said with a sigh. "And thank you."

And with that, I pulled my cloak around myself and stepped into the Empty. At the moment, all I wanted was to be alone so I started staggering towards the best place I knew for that...Traveler's safe house. How more alone could I be than in a shack in a world where nothing else lived?

Space seemed to bend around me as I approached the shack because there was nothing there and then it blurred into existence. I didn't question this though as I went inside and collapsed onto the bed, feeling completely and utterly exhausted both physically and emotionally.

I'd finally done it. I'd finally tracked down Loki, and with the help of what my friends had left behind, I'd been able to stop him and take him down. However, Loki was still alive. I felt confused, not sure whether I could consider this a success or failure. All I knew was that the burning rage I'd been feeling since the slaughter had finally faded away.

That anger had given me the strength to keep going. It had given me focus, a purpose...and a reason to keep living. In a way, I suppose it had given me an equal reason not to go on living, to remain in a sort of limbo instead. It had also done one more thing...it had acted as a shield to all my grief. Without that rage, a flood of emotions rushed through me again.

It started as tears pouring down my cheeks and then went into complete and total sobbing as I grieved for each and every one of my friends who'd died. I even grieved for Everett, the young man I'd once been but who was now gone and just as dead. With my rage gone, all that was left were tears.

It was four days since my confrontation with Loki and I was back at the safe house, no longer quite sure what to do. I felt lost and without a sense of purpose now that I was no longer on the hunt for vengeance. There was something just a little relaxing about that but something else just as scary. My old life had been completely and utterly destroyed and I had absolutely no idea of what to do now or what the future might hold.

I had the emergency money from the safe house as well as the bank account with the Seven's operational funds so wouldn't need to worry about work for awhile, but eventually I would have to. I'd have to find a job or some way of making money but I doubted there were a lot of companies who were looking for experience keeping up a super hero base on a resume.

Of course, there was the small matter of my legal identity as well. It probably would have been easiest to just take Amelia's name and identity but there was no way I could bring myself to do that. Taking her body was more than enough. There were several fake IDs that had been made up for her and kept in the safe house, but I just didn't see myself as either a Veronica Pond or an Amy Green. Fortunately, that wasn't something I needed to worry about too much just yet though the day would come when I'd have to.

Fortunately, Becky had been a godsend when it came to distracting me from my worries. She' been over every day, giving me some new annoyance and some relief from my loneliness. I was really starting to enjoy the role of 'big sister' that she thrust me into.

Becky was over at the moment, sitting across from me with a checker board on the table between us. We'd been playing video games earlier and I'd won most, which was fun since I was used to losing to Karen. However, we'd decided to switch things up and change to a somewhat more low tech game.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Becky asked with a smirk after I moved one of my pieces.

I stared at her for a moment, pretty sure that she was bluffing. It wasn't like this was chess and any big mistakes were a little more obvious. I took another look over the board, seeing that no matter which piece she moved next turn, I'd be able to take it.

"I think I do," I told her with a smirk of my own.

"Damn," Becky muttered as she made her move, right into a position that would let me hop her piece and put me into a good position to win the game.

"It looks like I've got you," I told her as I moved my piece.

After this, the topic of our conversation went back to the one Becky had started before she'd tried bluffing me, a boy in school that she was interested in. "But how do I know if he likes me?" she asked awkwardly.

I felt a little uncomfortable with that question, not sure how to advice a teenage girl on romance when I'd never been one myself. Then again, I reminded myself, not that long ago I'd been a teenage boy. I suppose that in a way, that made me more qualified to answer that question than a real woman would have been.

"I guess that depends on the guy," I responded thoughtfully, trying to remember what I'd been like at that age. Of course, I'd been an orphan with no real family or friends so my reactions probably hadn't been typical. "Every guy is different. Some will come right out and tell you while others will be self-conscious." Then I paused for a moment before chuckling. "At your age, you're more likely to find boys who aren’t as willing to admit they like you.”

“Oh,” Becky said, sounding disappointed.

“He might tease you,” I told her with a chuckle. “Boys that age will often tease you if they like you.”

“He sometimes makes fun of me,” Becky admitted, not looking quite certain.

“Maybe he likes you,” I said. “Or maybe he’s just a jerk. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.”

Becky and I continued talking while I began to wonder about myself. I now had a female body with female genetics and a brain that had actually belonged to a straight woman. However, my mind and experience were those of a guy. I suddenly realized that I didn’t know if I was still into girls or if I’d switched teams.

Ever since I’d ended up in this body, I’d been completely focused on my revenge and hadn’t even considered romance. I couldn’t remember feeling any attraction to anyone during that time, male or female. It was a little disconcerting to realize that I didn’t even know my own sexual preference. This certainly didn’t help my confusion any and only made me consider just how much I still had to learn about my new self and who I was going to become.

Just then, the doorbell started to ring which surprised me since Becky was right here with me and no one else ever came over. I frowned and went to the door, hesitating a moment before opening it.

The man standing there was tall and muscular with dark hair, nice slacks and a button up shirt. What surprised me was who he was since I recognized him immediately. I should since we used to be friends, though I certainly hadn’t expected to see him here.

“Will,” I said, using the White Knight’s real name since he was in civilian clothes.

“We need to talk,” he said, coming forward as though just assuming I would step out of the way and let him inside. Of course, he was right.

“How did you find me?” I asked with a scowl, wondering why he was here as well.

“You forget,” Will told me, “I was the one who insisted we set up this safe house.”

Then Will stopped and stared at Becky, looking about as surprised to see her as I was to see him. Becky stared back, obviously curious about who my visitor was since he was the first one to come over besides her.

“I think you should go home for now Becky,” I told her. “We can finish our game later.”

“You bet we will,” Becky said with a snort. “I’m gonna kick your ass next time.”

Becky stared at Will with a speculative look and then opened her mouth as if to say something, probably to ask him if he was a super hero. However, she thought better of it and closed her mouth. It was nice to know that she could keep quiet about the whole super hero thing.

"Later Eve," Becky said instead, giving me a quick wave and Will a brief stare before leaving.

Once Becky was gone, Will gave me a grim look and said, "Doctor Power told me what happened."

I grunted, knowing that I shouldn't be surprised. "And what did he tell you?"

"He told me all about the attack," Will said, letting out a sigh and then giving me a sympathetic look. "And Mindseye told me about what happened to you Everett..."

I froze at that then forced myself to act calm as I turned and walked to the kitchen, saying, "I prefer to be called Eve now. It seems more appropriate." I tried not do show any of the emotions I was feeling.

"She said that too," Will responded.

Neither of us said a word as I pulled out a bottle of scotch and a pair of glasses and poured us each a drink. In my old body, I still would have been underage but I guess I was now technically old enough to drink. I had been only nineteen but was now twenty-eight...nearly ten years older than I had been. Will still didn't say anything as he accepted the drink.

"Mindseye said you were pretty traumatized," Will said carefully, as though not quite sure how to talk to me. "It must be difficult...having witnessed that. I can only imagine what it's like being in someone else's body...especially..."

"You have no idea," I whispered in response, taking a long drink from my glass.

Will nodded faintly then abruptly changed topics and said, "Did you know I have a daughter named Evie?"

"No," I responded suspiciously.

When Will had been with the Seven as the White Knight, he'd always tried to keep his family separate from his work with the team. Sure, he'd talk about them every once in awhile but he'd only refer to them in generalities such as 'my wife' or 'my son', never really using their names. Of course, I'd met two of his siblings, Target and Neon, but that had been business as they were both heroes too.

"I have a new daughter named Joselyn too," he said thoughtfully.

"You do?" I responded. "I didn't know your wife was expecting. Congratulations."

Will paused and then started chuckling. "I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than that," he said with a look of amusement. "You two have a lot in common. You see, until a short time ago she was my son Joshua."

"What?" I asked in surprise.

Will nodded and explained, "A few months ago, back when she'd still been Joshua, she'd been involved in a very traumatic event. The stress caused her latent powers to finally develop and they changed her when they did." He shrugged at that. "It's been challenging for my family, adjusting to losing my son but gaining a daughter. None of us were quite sure how to treat her at first or what her new role was in the family. Of course, it's been even more difficult for her...but we have all been managing." He paused for a moment and smiled proudly. "Now I can't even imagine life without her."

"That's interesting," I said carefully, curious about this Jocelyn in spite of myself. After all, it might be interesting to talk to someone who'd gone through the same thing I was, at least as far as adjusting to a new gender.

"You should probably come over and talk to her sometime," Will told me. "I have a feeling that you two could really help each other."

"Maybe," I agreed, not about to make any commitment. I watched Will suspiciously, knowing that he was still dancing around something. This was one of his attempts to get me a little more relaxed and comfortable before he went into what he really wanted to say. I'd seen him do it a number of times before.

"I heard about your fight in Los Angeles," Will suddenly said, his expression turning grim so I knew he was coming to it. "I heard that you did a good job...that you saved the city and even captured Loki."

I nodded slightly at that before responding, "Yeah. We left him disarmed and locked up." I smiled faintly at the bad pun.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" Will suddenly demanded angrily, smashing his fist into the dining room table and it shattered beneath his developed strength. Both our drinks were lost in the process. He looked up and stared at me with an expression of hurt and anger. "They were my friends too. Why didn't you come to me? I could have helped you..."

"You weren't there," said bitterly. I hadn't intended to but the words sort of came out on their own, giving voice to my resentment. "You left us..."

Will suddenly looked almost as though I'd hit him. "You think I didn't care about you anymore?" Will asked quietly. "You think I forgot all about you all when I left?" He paused for a moment, grimacing before he spat out vehemently, "You think I haven't already asked myself what if I'd stayed? That I haven't wondered if I might have been able to save them somehow if I was there? I have... I may have left to help my family but I never stopped caring about the Seven. I never forgot about my friends...any of you."

I looked away,unable to meet Will's eyes. I suddenly felt guilty for my resentment towards him, knowing that none of it was his fault. If he'd been there, maybe things would have been different. Maybe he would have somehow been able to change the way things happened. But maybe he would also be dead too, leaving his wife a widow and his kids without a father.

"I'm sorry," I told him quietly.

"You should have come to me," Will told me gently, putting a hand on my shoulder though looking a bit uncertain as to whether that was appropriate now or not. "I would have helped bring in Loki."

"You would have wanted to arrest him," I admitted in a near whisper, looking Will in the eyes as I exclaimed, "I'd planned on killing him."

"What?" Will gasped in surprise.

"I wanted him to suffer and then die in agony," I told Will who stared at me as though I might be a complete stranger. Then I sighed and continued looking away, adding, "I had my chance... He was helpless in front of me...but I just couldn't do it. I just couldn't bring myself to."

"Because you're a good man," Will started, then winced before correcting himself. "You're a good person."

I just laughed bitterly at that and then told him, "I'm not even sure I am a person anymore."

"Everett," he started. "Eve..."

"I mean, what the hell am I?" I demanded, gesturing down at myself. "Everett is dead... I watched him get sliced in half... I mean, look at me... I've got Everett's memories, Amelia's body, and George's umbrella." I held up my metal arm at that then laughed bitterly. "I'm like some damn Frankenstein monster made up from the leftovers and remnants they left behind. Maybe that should be my new name...Remnant."

Will just stared at me with an expression of horror and pity. If I'd still had all that rage to act as a crush it might not have bothered me so much.

"Someone doesn't become less of a person just because they've had an organ transplant or a prosthetic," Will insisted firmly. "You still have your soul...your humanity. If you didn't, you wouldn't be hurting so much."

"You don't understand," I started to say as tears began to form.

"No, you don't understand," he insisted, cutting off what I was going to say. "You aren't leftovers and you certainly aren't any kind of monster. Yes, you have Amelia's body, George's umbrella...and even Takeshi's cloak...but you aren't just some remnant of the Seven. You're their legacy."

"What?" I responded, blinking in surprise.

"You've been with the Seven for years," Will told me, becoming gentler as he put a hand on my shoulder again. "Since the very beginning. I've trained you nearly as much as I trained my own son…daughter. I've seen you stare down an alien ray gun and barely blink. I've seen you defeat a class B villain by yourself when you were sixteen years old...using nothing but your own wits and a baseball bat. And now you've handled yourself very well against the Triad and Loki." Will gave me a dramatic pause before stating, "You have the makings of a great hero. All you have to do is accept that."

I stared at Will in surprise, feeling stunned by what he'd just said as well as a bit confused. "But I'm..."

"But nothing," Will said with a faint smile. "You have more training and experience than some active heroes I know and now you actually have the power to use it. What they really need isn't someone to get revenge for them...but someone who can carry on their work and their memory."

For several seconds, I just stood there feeling completely dumbfounded and uncertain. That was about the last thing I'd expected to hear from Will. Instead, I'd been more prepared for him to tell me that I'd done a half-assed job fighting Loki and the Triad and that I should leave it to the professionals.

"That isn't really what I came to tell you though," Will said after half a minute. "I came looking for you because I have something more important to tell you." He paused for a moment then smiled faintly before saying, "You aren't the only survivor."

"What?" I asked in surprise and a little confusion.

"When Doctor Power removed their bodies from stasis," Will told me, looking me right in the eyes. "he found that one of them was still alive...just barely. Doctor Power was able to give medical attention and... Well...you aren't the only one to survive Loki's attack."

I gasped in surprise and stared at Will, searching his face for any sign that he was joking. Of course, Will had never been one to make jokes. He'd always been too serious and professional for that. Then my knees began to feel shaky as this began to sink in. It couldn't be true... They were all dead. I'd seen it with my own eyes. I'd been grieving for them all... This was the best news I'd ever heard in my entire life, far too good to possibly be true.

"Who?" I finally whispered. Then I grabbed Will's arm in desperation and demanded, "Who is it?"

Will winced in pain and then gestured down, saying, "Your hand..."

I realized that I'd grabbed him with my metal hand and let go. I had to force myself to step back and take a deep breath, to try being patient.

"I'm strong," Will reminded me, rubbing at the spot where I'd been holding him, "not invulnerable."

"Who is it?" I repeated insistently.

"You'll have to go and see for yourself," he finally said. "Lightning Force headquarters."

And with that, Will turned and started for the front door while I just stared at him and gasped, "What?"

Will stopped with his hand on the door handle and then turned to look back at me. "I meant every word that I said to you. I'm still your friend and if you need something...anything at all...even just someone to talk to..." Then he stepped away from the door and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pen and some paper. He quickly wrote something down and then handed the paper to me. "This is my home phone number and address... I really mean it. I'd like to introduce you to Jocelyn."

"Maybe," I said quietly, wondering what it would be like to talk to someone else who'd gone through the instant sex change thing. "I might like that."

Will just smiled gently, gave me a faint nod, and then turned to leave. I watched him, absently aware of how strong, handsome, and appealing he looked. I wasn’t sure if this was my hormones coming into play and revealing a new sexual orientation or if it was just my imagination.

Once Will was gone, I stood there for a minute, thinking about what he said and trying to convince myself that it might possibly be true. Once I allowed myself to truly hope that it was, I nearly ran down to the hidden room so I could change into my costume.

It felt a little strange changing into my costume in order to go see if one of my friends was alive, especially since I’d expected that I’d never wear it again. However, it seemed sort of right as well.

As I snapped the arm guard on, I realized that Hellshot’s bow was the only thing stored in it now. Perhaps I should move the throwing stars there instead of keeping them in the pouch. Then I shook my head, knowing that kind of thing was completely and totally unimportant. I had to get to Lightning Force headquarters as fast as I could.

“Maybe its Amelia,” I whispered to myself, wondering how she’d react to seeing me in her old body. “Or Ben…” What would he think about my being able to use his bow? “Or even George…” Would he be jealous that his old umbrella had turned into my arm? Would it suddenly leave me and go back to him?

I suddenly realized why Will had refused to tell me who the survivor was. If I knew for certain who it was, I might have been too ashamed or afraid of the awkwardness and found some excuse not to go. But without that knowledge, there was a desperation to see for myself instead…a hunger that was even stronger than the one I’d previously felt to get revenge on Loki.

As soon as I was ready, I stepped into the Empty and ran for the crossing point as fast as I could. I completely ignored the courtesy of arriving at Lightning Force’s front door and instead stepped across right in the middle of their headquarters.

The young woman I’d seen before with the dark blonde hair and the strange looking tiara was there and saw me. After the last time, I’d figured out that she must be Hardshell, just without her armor. She immediately reacted to my appearance and was about to attack me before suddenly pausing.

“It’s you,” she said, relaxing. “Doc said we should expect you. Next time you might think of knocking first.”

“I’ll remember that for next time,” I responded.

The woman…Hardshell stared at me for a moment before saying, “Mindseye said I should probably talk to you. She said that I might be able to help you out a bit…”

“Later,” I told Hardshell, not very interested in small talk at the moment. “I came here for…”

“That way,” Hardshell pointed down a hall. “I’ll show you the way.” However, I was already starting in that direction.

I’d barely gone a dozen steps when Doctor Power stepped out of a doorway and nodded to Hardshell. She shrugged then turned and left.

“Who is it?” I asked nervously.

“Come in and see,” Doctor Power told me, gesturing for me to come inside.

I nodded and entered the room, seeing that it was basically a hospital room with three beds though only one of them was occupied. I froze and stared at the figure on the bed. It was Hellshot…Ben. Or at least it was his body. He was sitting up but I could see that his entire mid-section was wrapped in bandages. He had an IV in his arm and looked tired.

“Ben?” I asked cautiously, knowing that it most likely wasn’t.

“No,” he responded quietly, staring at me with a look of amazement. “I’m Karen.”

“Karen,” I whispered, suddenly feeling lighter…as though at least some of the weight had been lifted from my soul. “I’m…”

“Everett,” Karen responded with an awkward smile. “Mindseye told me.”

“It’s Eve now,” I told her with an awkward smile of my own. I came closer and stared at her, seeing Ben’s face but there was something of Karen’s expressions. I could see hints of the old Karen beneath her new flesh. “It seemed more appropriate.”

“I guess I’ll need a new name too,” Karen said with a forced chuckle, still staring at me. “It’s so hard to believe that’s you in there…”

“Not easy for me either,” I told her quietly. “But I’ve been trying to adjust.

“I haven’t had much chance to yet,” Karen admitted, looking down at herself and wincing. “I’ve just been here in bed…” She shook her head and muttered, “Damn this is weird.”

I nodded at that, understanding completely. “I’m…happy you’re alive,” I told her honestly, reaching up to wipe the tears from my eyes. “I thought you were dead. I thought I was the only one…”

“Mindseye told me,” Karen said quietly. “She said you were…really torn up.” From the way she said it, I had a feeling that the description may have been a little less complimentary.

“You mean unstable?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Something like that,” Karen admitted. Then she said, “I heard you took down Loki and the Triad while I was out…” She gave me a speculative look before adding, “It looks like you’re not just sitting on the bench now.”

“If I’d known you were still alive,” I told her, reaching out to touch her…until I remembered it was my metal hand and hesitated. “I would have waited for you to get well enough to join me.”

Karen stared at my arm for a moment before asking, “Did that hurt?”

I held it out for her to get a better look and answered, “Like hell.” Then I decided to show off just a little, letting it change configuration to clawed mode. “It does have some advantages though.”

“Damn,” Karen gasped with a shudder. Then she looked at me again and forced a weak smile, “I just got impaled… Hardly felt a thing.” I snorted at that while she joked, “I just woke up here a couple days ago… Hell of a shock.”

“Well, before long you’ll be all ready to put on a costume and go fighting villains again,” I told her, trying to make her feel better. However, Karen didn’t smile at that. Instead, she winced and looked uncomfortable.

After a moment, Karen responded, “No I won’t…” She was silent for several minutes, just staring at the wall. Then she looked at me and said, “I’m done… I’m out of the hero business for good.”

I was a little startled by that and asked, “Are you sure?”

“I’ve lost my powers along with my body,” Karen snapped.

“You could learn to use Ben’s bow,” I suggested weakly.

Karen just shook her head and said, “No… After what happened, I don’t want to do that anymore. I can’t do it anymore. I just want a normal life…or at least as normal as I can get looking like this.” She gestured down at herself.

“I understand,” I said quietly.

My old life was dead and gone so it made sense that she’d see her old life as dead and gone as well. It just seemed ironic that we’d ended up going in different directions, with me becoming a costumed developed while she became normal.

“I’ve had nightmares,” Karen told me quietly, looking almost ashamed. “Every time I sleep I have nightmares about Loki. Every time I close my eyes I see him coming at us and tearing us apart.”

“Me too,” I admitted, just as quietly.

Of course, my nightmares had eased a great deal since I’d taken down Loki. After seeing him helpless, beaten, and broken, it was hard to still think of him as the boogieman. Karen didn’t have that closure to help though.

“So tell me about it,” Karen said after a minute of silence between us. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.”

I hesitated a moment, knowing that some of it wasn’t very flattering to me. Still, she was the only other one who was there…the only other one who truly understood what had happened to us. The two of us shared an experience that no one else could truly understand so I could at least share this with her.

I began telling Karen about how I’d woken up to find the rest of the team dead and myself still in Vesper’s body. I told her about how I’d scrounged the old headquarters for weapons and then went in search of vengeance, even about how I’d failed miserably during my first attempt. Then I told her about how I’d faced Loki in Los Angeles and had him helpless at my feet.

“I wish I could have seen that,” Karen said when I was finished. “I wish I could have seen Loki like that…”

We continued talking for a bit longer but it was obvious that she was running out of energy. She was infinitely better than the last time I’d seen her but had still been impaled and had a lot of recovery to do.

“There’s something else,” I said, suddenly remembering something.

I reached into one of the pouches on my belt and pulled out the disk from her old costume, the one with the team logo on it. I’d had this with me ever since leaving the headquarters, using it to help me feel closer to her while I tried to avenge her. I was done chasing Loki and she was back alive so there was no real reason for me to keep it anymore.

“This belongs to you,” I told her, handing her the disk. “I’ve been keeping it safe for you.”

“From my costume,” Karen said as she accepted it. Then she held it back out to me, saying, “I told you…I’m through with that stuff. No more costumes for me.”

“And what am I supposed to do with it?” I asked her with a snort.

Karen just stared at me for a moment and said, “Wear it.”

I nearly laughed at that. “I don’t deserve to wear that,” I told her. “I was never a member of the team.”

“Bullshit,” Karen responded firmly. “No one deserves it more than you. You’ve been with the team even longer than I have. You earned that a long time ago.”

I hesitantly took the disk back from her though she’d handed it back upside down. As I looked at it, I noticed that upside down, the 7 looked almost like an L.

“If you’re going to wear a costume,” Karen told me, “You should wear that.”

I just held the disk in my hand and nodded. Deciding to change the subject a little, I joked, “Now that you don’t have your powers anymore…I’m going to have to challenge you to a rematch on some video games.”

“Oh shit,” Karen responded with a shake of her head. “I don’t have my enhanced reflexes anymore…” Then she stared at me for a moment before grinning, “You’re on.”

At this point, Doctor Power came back in and told me, “I’m afraid visiting hours are over for now. Our patient is exhausted and really needs his rest.”

“Then I’ll see you later,” I promised Karen, staring at her for several long seconds. As I did so, it suddenly occurred to me how handsome Ben had been. I’d never really noticed it before but couldn’t help but do so now. “Definitely.”

As I left the room, I considered what I’d just been thinking about Karen and her new body. I let out a sigh, now becoming fairly certain that having a female body and the physical brain of a straight woman was indeed having an effect on my sexual orientation.

“Damn,” I muttered, feeling a bit uncertain about that and what it meant for my self-identity. Of course, my entire self-identity had been sliced in half and killed so I needed to find a new one anyway. “I am so fucked up…”

There were a lot of things that I would have to get used to, a lot of things about my situation that I still had to make sense of. And of course, as Mindseye had said, I had the whole survivor’s guilt and post traumatic stress disorder thing too. That was a lot to deal with but now I realized that I would indeed have to try.

With that, I reached into one of my pouches and pulled out the card that Mindseye had given me on my last visit. It was the business card for a therapist, one who might be able to help me with some of those issues.

“I never thought I’d see the day when I needed a shrink,” I muttered to myself, though I was also pretty sure that it was the right step to take. I made a decision that I’d call this person and set up an appointment. After all, I had a lot of baggage to deal with now and could use some help figuring it all out.

Then I looked at the disk that Karen had given back to me, still holding it upside down. I remembered what Will had told me about being a hero and carrying on the work and memory of the Seven. After nearly a minute, I made yet another decision and snapped the disk in place on my belt, right in front where it would look like a belt buckle.

I briefly considered going to find Hardshell and asking her what it was that she’d wanted to talk to me about. However, I didn’t feel like hanging around here now that I’d been kicked out of Karen’s room.

“I’ll ask her the next time I come to visit Karen,” I mused. That would only be a day or two at most.

A moment later, I pulled my cloak around me and stepped into the Empty. I took my time walking back to the cross point for the safe house, no longer in any rush. After all, I had what I’d come for.

I smiled as I walked, feeling a stirring something that I’d been missing. With Karen’s miraculous return from the dead, I no longer felt quite so lost or alone. In fact, I actually felt as though a missing piece of my soul had somehow been returned to me. For the first time since Loki’s attack, I actually felt happy.

When I returned to the safe house, it was just in time to hear the doorbell ringing. I went to answer it, not bothering to change out of my costume since I was pretty sure it was Becky.

“Come on in,” I told Becky as I opened the door for her.

Becky came inside, taking one look at me and grinning, “Hey Eve… Who was that guy anyway?”

“Don’t call me Eve,” I told Becky with an amused smile. “When I’m in costume, you need to call me by my new name…” I gestured down to the logo from Landspeed’s costume which I now wore and had intentionally placed upside down so that it looked like an ‘L’. “Call me Legacy.”

“Wow,” Becky responded with a grin. “Very cool. I like it. I mean, every super hero needs a code name.”

I just nodded and told her, “And mine is very appropriate. I have quite a legacy to live up to.”

Becky suddenly paused and stared at me for a moment before exclaiming, “Hey, you didn’t deny being a hero.”

“No I didn’t,” I admitted with a faint nod of my head.

Becky stared at me for a moment more and then burst into a broad grin and said, “I told you so…”

I just smiled at that and bowed my head slightly. “Come on,” I told Becky, gesturing to the couch. “Have a seat. I want to tell you about my friends…some of the greatest people I’ve ever known…”

And as I sat down with Becky, I knew that I would do everything I could to live up to the legacy that they’d left me and to keep their memory alive. I was still confused about myself and my future, but those were things I was certain of. It was nice to have a purpose again.

The prison cell was small and cramped with white painted stone walls and a hard concrete floor. A thin and narrow cot was bolted to the wall and there was even a metal toilet with no seat in the other corner, though no privacy to use with it. There was a thick metal door rather than the simple bars that less secure cells often used, an indication of just how dangerous they believed the prisoner to be.

The sole occupant of the cell was a skinny man with black hair and a pinched face, wearing a bright orange jump suit with the left sleeve rolled up. His left arm ended just several inches below the elbow and the stump was well wrapped in bandages.

Loki glared at his arm with a cold anger, wincing as he moved a little too much. Not only was his arm still killing him but so was his side where his ribs had been broken. The pain added extra fuel to his quiet rage and his plans for once he was eventually free.

Suddenly, Loki became aware that he was no longer the only one in the cell. There was another man standing right in front of the door even though Loki was certain it had never opened. The man was tall and thin with shoulder length black hair that was brushed back. He was wearing a black suit that was very old fashioned, the kind that may have been used well over a hundred years earlier. He was also leaning on a black cane and watching Loki through a pair or very dark sunglasses with round lenses.

"So you are the one called Loki," the strange man in black mused in a raspy voice. "An interesting nom de guerre...one taken from a god of mischief."

"Who the fuck are you?" Loki demanded, getting to his feet.

"You are correct Mister Loki," the stranger said, giving Loki a slight bow. "The proprieties must be observed. You may call me Mister Munin

"Yeah," Loki responded suspiciously. "And what do you want?"

"My employer tasked me with locating people of certain talent," Mister Munin told Loki with a faintly amused smile. "You are one such person. You see, I had also been interested in that young woman you had a disagreement with..." He used his cane to point at Loki's stump. "Such rage... Sadly, she lacked the necessary killer instinct. Fortunately, you do not possess that problem and have demonstrated ample talent in causing destruction and chaos. These are things that my employer is interested in."

Loki scowled for a moment before saying, "So you want me to what...work for you?" He spat to on the floor to show what he thought of that.

"What I propose," Mister Munin told him, not seeming offended, "is that I return your staff and power to you. Afterwards, we shall depart this place together so that you may discuss a possible arrangement with my employer." He paused for a moment to let that sink in before asking, "Is this acceptable?"

"Fine," Loki responded. "If you can get my staff back for me then we have a fucking deal."

Mr. Munin smiled faintly and held out his hand. There was a swirl of blackness in the air, almost as though the darkness had just come alive and was obeying his summons. A moment later, Mister Munin held a familiar black staff in his hand. He held it out to Loki without another word.

Loki held the staff in his good hand, grinning maniacally as he considered what he could do with such power at his command again. However, he knew what he needed to take care of first.

"Give me a new hand," Loki ordered the staff.

Almost as soon as Loki finished saying the words, the bandages on his arm crumbled to dust and fell off while something beneath them started to move. The flesh at the end of the stump was growing and stretching out, rapidly becoming longer and taking on the familiar shape of a hand. It only took seconds before Loki now had full sized left hand, though it didn't look much like his old one. The skin of his new hand and arm up to his elbow was dark red and scaly, looking decidedly inhuman, especially since each of the fingers was now longer and clawlike. In fact, the entire hand and forearm looked as though they belonged on a demon rather than a human.

"Fuck," Loki gasped as he wiggled his new fingers experimentally.

"Come now," Mister Munin said, distracting Loki from his new hand. He lowered his sunglasses, revealing a pair of eyes that glowed red. "You have an appointment with my employer."

And with that, the swirling blackness returned, this time much larger than before. Loki could see that it was forming a portal to another place. He looked at Mister Munin, gave him a suspicious glare, then clutched his staff tightly in his new hand and stepped through.

THE END

 

THE END