"Cool your jets!" Screamed Deirdre as the radical hit man stormed out of the penthouse apartment.

As Grey Pyre, headed out the door and for the stairwell door, Snow Angel looked over at Jenny and shouted, "He's gonna trip the explosives!"



"Way ahead of ya." Replied Door Knocker, as she hurdled over a dividing half wall and landed before a table upon which were four laptops all networked together. She went to the one that was running their security program and quickly deactivated the stairwell defense just as Grey bolted through the door.

"That freakin' maniac is going to blow the entire operation!" Growled Jenny, "Stay here Snow, I'm going to see what's got his panties in a knot."

The black leather bound thief smoothly strode after Grey, gracefully leaping from landing to landing after him. When she emerged from the doorway she tucked her hand and into her jacket and let it rest on her silenced 9mm. She peeked around a tall hedge toward the mall parking lot that the frantic man had been so concerned with and couldn't see a thing, but then her attention was caught by movement beside a row of bushes. It was Grey, it had to be. He on the other side of the street already, creeping up behind a hill fringed with a low decorative hedge.

It was a busy street and even though it was late, there were still a few cars that passed by, so Jenny stepped out as if she was walking over to a car in the parking lot of the two towered apartment complex. As she nonchalantly strolled through the lot she kept an eye on Grey and from her new vantage point spied what he was so concerned about. There was a late model blue coloured car parked in the shadows of what appeared to be a loading dock alcove at the side of the mall. There were two guys standing beside it, but there wasn't enough light to make out any details, except that one was taller than the other, and by the width of their shoulders they both seemed fit. How in the hell, Grey picked them out, Door Knocker had no idea. Enhanced sight maybe? Pretty impressive. From the top of the tower, she would have never taken any notice of the vehicle or the two men.

Jenny pulled out her cell phone and contacted, Snow.

"Snow. I've got 'em in my sights. Our eagle eyed friend spotted something alright. Might be trouble, then again this new guy might be a whack-job. Keep ya posted."

At that moment she saw Grey duck down as another car pulled up and parked beside the hidden car.

"Snow. We got another car. I'm going to move in closer to get a better look."

Door Knocker walked down the street until she was obscured by the hill that ran along the parking lot, then crossed over the street, near to where Grey was lying low.

"Who the hell are these, guys?" She whispered. "What the f$%# is your problem? That f#$%ing stairwell you ran down is rigged. This is a team dips$%^! You better get with the program!"



Sigma's mask stretched into a smile when he saw, Seizure get out of the car.

"Good to see ya, girl." He greeted then nodded to the her ever constant companion, "Kekoa."

Sigma thumbed behind him to Wraith who remained leaning against the car.

"Doc, here thinks that one of these towers across the street is supporting one of those signal projecting towers. I don't know if he's right or not, but I'm itchin' for a little action. What do ya guys say we go take a look."

Wraith remained silent but waved and smiled to the other two meta. With the power of flight and invisibility he already knew what his course of action was going to be, but he wasn't sure what the others had in mind. He had a special, non-magnetic PDA that he could communicate with so he could keep in touch.

"Wonder which one?" Said Sigma looking up at the two towers, then he reluctantly looked over his shoulder at Wraith then back to Seizure, "I suppose we could send up ol' 'wonder-guy' here to check it out." he mentioned then turned around with an authoritative finger pointed at the big man, "No heroics though. In and out like a duck-mating. Got it!"

Wraith nodded without saying a word and awaited to hear what the others had to say.

Zoe stood against the wall, cigarette dangling out of her mouth as she watched with narrowed eyes the scene before her. It wouldn't have ever occurred to her to be a possibility and yet here it was, playing before her in real time. Cassius, however, seemed less surprised than he was ecstatic. The human was grinning ear to ear when the deaf-blind kid clocked him full force in the jaw, sending him stumbling backwards. Sapien bounced off of a pillar and moved around Shawn, ducking another punch and side-stepping away from him. The kid missed the punch and seemed to lose his bearings by his own shuffling. For a moment, everything was still. Shawn stood with his back to Zoe, dead eyes staring forward, half buried by his upper eyelids. Dominic Cassius was poised behind him, weight centered, barely even breathing as he fell stock still. His grin never faltered even as he very slowly lifted his foot and placed it silently one step closer to the other meta.

Shawn quietly sniffed the air, pivoting quickly toward Cassius making the human pause. Then, in a split second, the two jerked into motion, as though time itself had paused and was just then rushing to catch up with itself. The two rushed towards each other each threw a punch. Cassius's narrowly whizzed by Shawn's ear as Shawn's grazed off of Cassius' side with enough force to leave a burning feeling streaking through him. Immediately, the human rushed past him, leading him back towards the other end of the room before taking a nimble leap and landing lightly to the side of him. When Shawn paused again, apparently having lost him, Cassius's grin widened and he motioned for Zoe to hand him a pen that lay on the cluttered desk beside her. Zoe tossed it to him and Cassius immediately chucked it across from him, letting it hit the ground not far from Shawn's feet. To his shock, the other meta immediately turned in Cassius' direction and rammed full-force into him, his shoulder slamming into Cassius's gut. Cassius let out a choked grunt and doubled over, his eyes widened in shock as Shawn took him to the ground. There, he dropped down onto him, settling his weight on Cassius' hips while his hand wrapped around the human's neck, pinning him to the floor.

Zoe cocked an eyebrow, her eyes widened a little. The young men's chests rose and fell in deep rhythm and Cassius turned to grin over at Zoe.

"See?" he said, "and that wasn't even with his radioactive vision er whatever!" he exclaimed excitedly. He moved to stand up only to choke against Shawn's grip which remained around his neck, threatening to squeeze. "Okay dude, that's good," he said before turning back to Zoe, "tell him it's like, cool or whatever. Like, game over, he wins." Saying nothing, Zoe walked over and tapped Shawn lightly on the shoulder. Shawn raised his head and blinked for a moment before getting to his feet and stepping back to let Cassius up. Cassius dusted himself off and took a deep breath before looking from Shawn to Zoe.

"We could like, totally use this dude," he said with a grin.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seizure looked up at the towers before them, her eyes scanning one and then the other as though looking for some clue that would expose the culprit. Then she relaxed her mind for a moment and tried to see if she could pick up anything from them, for the mind wasn't the only thing that gave off electrical waves, but nothing came from them.

"I hate to put you at risk, Wraith," she said, "but I think that'll be our best--" she paused suddenly, her brow furrowing as another sensation fell over her. Her mind began to cloud and pulse and she touched her hand to the side of her head in an attempt to focus and calm herself. "Guys . . . " she said, her tone hushing to a whisper. "There's someone else here. Two maybe . . . I . . . I'm picking up a . . . consciousness." The others looked around now and leaned in closer to her.

"How many?" asked Sigma. Ayana squinted for a moment in concentration before she replied.

"I . . . I'm not sure. One's really angry, it's overshadowing the other . . . but I'm pretty sure just two."

Hidden in the shadows, Grey's heart jumped and his anger seethed even more when his sensitive ears picked up their conversation. So the black bitch was a psychic. Great. He turned towards Door Knocker though he kept the other 3 in in his sights.

"F#$*ing bitch knows we're here," he whispered so quietly that even she could barely hear him. "The costumed freak tried to stop me at the plant. Thought I killed him." His words were chopped and tensed as he struggled to hold back the other ones that were threatening to burst loudly forth.

Ayana reached out with her mind, pinpointing the other two, reaching into their minds, especially the one that was radiating with angry energy . . . and . . . something else . . . she couldn't quite place.

"There's definitely two," Ayana whispered, then her eyes widened, "they . . . they have something to do with all of this. Wraith . . . the angry one . . . he . . . tried to kill you?"

Grey listened and considered just jumping up and shooting the costumed bastard while he had the chance, but now he had to be part of a goddamned "team," and he couldn't be so sure Door Knocker wouldn't hold him back just long enough to f#$% up everything.

"There's . . . something wrong with him though," Ayana continued, in her attempts to find their physical location from their brain waves, she ended up digging just a little deeper into their minds. "The angry one . . . there's something off . . . in his brain . . . I'm not sure . . . there," she whispered, surreptitiously pointing straight at Grey and Door Knocker's hiding place. "They're over there."

"F#$*!" Grey hissed, then turned to Door Knocker, "they know where we are, you gonna let me handle this or you gonna make this a f#(%in' team effort?"

Jenny cast Grey a slight twinge of a smile and waved her hand in an exaggerated manner allowing him proceed on his own.

"This ain't my style, kid. You wanna get yourself killed, you go right ahead. JUST don't give up any information."

Even as Grey was responding, the tall woman in black leather, smoothly back away further behind the hedge and drew her gun. She made sure she was well hidden between two rows of hedges and waited to see what the hit man was going to do.



Sigma wasted little time when Seizure alerted them to the location of two potential enemies and drawing his retractable whip in one hand and a nickel plated 9mm in the other. He starting moving toward a dumpster at the far left of the low hill just outside the docking bay, keeping his eyes on the hedge at the top of it for any movement. He signaled to the others to circle around the other side so that they could surround them but Wraith had another idea. The wind mutant vanished from sight and went on head on toward the decorative hedge at the top of the hill.

As Grey, quickly clued Door Knocker in to his obvious disdain for teamwork, his sensitive hearing could detect Sigma's foot steps running across the pavement, about thirty meters to his right on the other side of the hedge he was hidden behind. The wind also picked up at that moment, vigorously rustling the leaves of the decorative shrubbery.



As Wraith, rushed over the hedge in his wind form he only caught sight of Grey, since Door Knocker had nestled herself into hiding spot away from the hitman. Normally he would not have been able to clearly remember, Grey's face due to his 'mental-scrambling' ability but, Wraith had gotten a good look at him when he was battling it out with the RAID meta-human who was able to suppress mutant powers. He was sure he had seen this guy before, but it was still difficult to place his face, but then he had a distinct flash of someone shooting him, then he remembered.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Wraith thought to himself, "What the hell was this joker doing here?"

Grey quietly swore when he lost sight of the masked freak but now had the others to deal with. Damn, this really coulda just been quiet. Where were the scoped sniper rifles when he needed them? He coulda taken this faggot out quietly in a split f#$*in' second from the rooftop. Figuring it was pointless to still hide, Grey jumped out from behind the hedges and turned towards the footsteps. Even in the thickening darkness, he could make out the figure that was Sigma coming towards him and quickly fired twice in that direction. He then took off with quick, silent steps across the shadows and dove behind another group of hedges. There, he took aim at the other two and fired again. Kekoa and Ayana were ready, however. Ayana was already moving behind the car where she ducked and re-connected with the strange conscience she had picked up before. There was something very off about it and if there was a weakness in there she could exploit, she was going to. If anything, they could capture him and force information about this whole disaster out of him.

Guys, she "said," or rather, they heard her say as she paused to project her thoughts into their minds, don't kill him. We can maybe use him. I'll try to figure out what's going on with him. He's got a weakness, I'm sure of it. And it's in his brain.

Kekoa had rolled away at the first sound of gunshots and nodded to let her know he'd gotten the message. Meanwhile, Grey's sharp eyes darted around looking for the masked freak who was his real enemy. He didn't want, or even have time to deal with these other do-gooder idiots. All he wanted was to kill the big faggy one once and for all for almost screwing him over back at the plant. The very thought of it made Grey's blood boil again and he felt the pressure building within him. The rippling of electricity that ran across his brain projected back to Ayana making her narrow her eyes and focus harder from her position behind the car. Gritting her teeth, Seizure suppressed the urge to growl in frustration. She had no idea what to make of the odd waves coming from his mind and now she wasn't even sure where he was. Slowly, she slid along the car and peeked carefully around the side. If she could just get him in her sights, she could blast him...

Wraith listened to Seizure's telepathic message and considered it. He did not believe in killing, but this meta-human was as bad as they came. He had tried to kill him! There was no hesitation, no second thoughts, he just up and shot him without a care. There were very few times that Wraith ever considered simply killing someone, and now was one of them, but he would go along with Seizure's plan for now.

Sigma on the other hand only heard a few words. His natural telepathic shield, also prevented him from any sort of psychic contact so, Seizure's message was nothing but few garbled and incomprehensible words or ideas. As Grey opened fire on him, he dove behind the dumpster and popped out around the other side blasting away in the direction the shots came from.

Bullets whizzed through Wraith's non-coporeal form and when Sigma was done and began to advance, it was his turn.

Even as Sigma and Grey had exchanged gunfire, the winds had began to pick up. Swirling gusts whipped around their immediate vicinity as Wraith conjured his power, then when Grey least expected it he materialized behind him. Wraith, however, was full aware of the kid's speed and agility and so wasted no time and simple blasted him with a powerful jet stream of air, strong enough to flip a car. It was just about the most powerful burst, Wraith could muster but he was done playing around. He figured this guy could take it, and if he couldn't he guessed he'd owe Seizure an apology.

Wraith's intention was blast, Grey into the docking bay where he would be just on the other side of, Sigma' s car and in the direct sight of Seizure. Hopefully then could do her thing, but if not, Wraith would be on stand-by.

Grey felt the presence behind him and whipped around and fired with such speed that it was almost as though time had warped around him. Unfortunately, there was nothing to the drug addict's frame or abilities to keep him from being launched through the air by a sudden gale so fierce that he could only watch in shock as the ground flew away from him. The world spun and the air rushed in his ears for a good few seconds until his entire body shook, jolting with the impact as a wave of ache and fire pulsed through him over and over. Grey let out a grunt and for a second seemed to be completely disoriented. Even Seizure was startled when the young man literally dropped out of the sky and cut her connection of searching around in his brain.

Pain thrashed his every movement, yet Grey forced himself with gritted teeth to get to his feet and quickly turn to his surroundings, even if his vision was, momentarily, blurred and spinning. Poised within a second, Grey darted to the side away from Seizure and fired again in Wraith's direction. He then dove, albeit more carefully, behind a shrub and tried to spy out Sigma. Finding Sigma, he fired again and shifted to a different bush before he turned towards the other two. Seeing two people of minority races did little to help and he gave himself a fast headache trying to force the racial slurs back down. Ducked behind the bush, Grey's body throbbed and while he was still faster than the average human, there was definitely a dent in his speed and movements.

Then, something hit him, as though he'd been splashed with something. He didn't feel anything actually run into him, but the world no longer made sense. Everywhere he looked, it was like being on a different planet, as much as he told himself everything was normal. He suddenly had no idea where he was, no idea who he was. Blinking, Grey stumbled and teetered backward with awkward steps out from behind the bush. He tried to stumble away, but somehow couldn't make heads or tails of his very plain surroundings. The very ground beneath him seemed to warp and change. The shadows twisted and he could see no path to anywhere. He looked up and saw two figures which triggered him to raise his gun and fire. The bullets whizzed past Kekoa and Seizure, though not without leaving them a little surprised at how close they managed to come.

As she approached him, Seizure looked to Sigma and held up a hand. "Don't!" she said, urgently, knowing her message likely never made it to him, "I've got him. He's got something to do with all of this! We need to keep him alive!" Grey squinted at her and tried to stumble back, firing a few more shots that went erratically past them, their faces suddenly broke the haze and Grey couldn't have stopped himself if he tried.

"N#$%er!" he screamed at Seizure, making her cock an eyebrow in mingled surprise and amusement. The word exploded from him and he could only stumble again, helpless to stop it. He finally tripped over his own feet and barely managed to run through the tangle, trying in vain to get back to the others. It was like running through a tunnel in a funhouse . . . in the twilight zone. Everything should have made sense and yet nothing did and now his face and head were twitching and his mouth was spewing every despicable word for a black person that his mind had in storage.

He stopped when his body seemed to shrivel. His mouth tasted like sand. His breath caught and seemed stuck as though petrified. Grey's vision quickly went from dim to black as he dropped to the ground, his breath coming in shallow, desperate gasps of dry rasping. Kekoa stepped around from behind Seizure, a bubble of pure water hovering about his hand. His face was impassive, blank even as he looked down at the young man who was beginning to convulse on the ground at his feet. The bubble then elongated into a kind of stream which directed itself into the young man's mouth until most of the bubble was gone and the hit man lay still but unconscious on the ground.

Seizure already had her to back to him though, her dark eyes darting around the shadows.

"Don't get too comfortable yet," she said quietly, "there's still two more out there."

Wraith had learned not to take any chances with the gunslinging meta-human and vanished just as quickly as he appeared. Even as Grey flew through the air he managed to squeeze off at least four rounds in his direction and Wraith could feel the bullets rush through his non-corporeal form with deadly accuracy.

"Christ!", Thought Wraith, "I should propel that bastard into the upper atmosphere and drop that sack of shit!"

Wraith was angry. He was actually angry a lot, but he managed to contain it most of the time but once in a while somebody came along that got his goat. Grey was one of those people and usually, despite his best efforts to uphold the law, they ended up a grease spot. He had just about had his fill of this meta's crap and it was time to end it.

Even as Grey was flying haphazardly through the air, forcing his body to react to the turbulent air currents around him, Wraith was upon him. His wind form had hitched a ride on the very gale force blast that he had conjured and as Grey helplessly spun through the air the wind mutant materialized above him. Even the hit man couldn't react to nor predict that his opponent could have moved so fast, but in his ghostly form normal physical laws did not apply to Wraith; laws like inertia and gravity force.

How Wraith wanted to drive his fist, full force into Grey's face but instead he rotated in the air and threw his lower leg hard into his back driving him down to the pavement. The force of the blow literally diverted Grey from his present course causing it to appear as if he dropped out of no where to Seizure's surprise.

The hitman had landed near the docking bay but still had plenty of fight left in him. Wraith watched him from his invisible world, swirling around in the existing air currents around the meta as he dove behind another hedge. A row of shrubberies ran the length wall of whatever box store they were near and the hitman had fell into the white gravel bed of the heavy bushes.

Sigma was closing in, gun drawn and whip ready. As Grey fired a few more rounds in his direction he hit the ground and rolled away like a newspaper in the wind as the bullets ricocheted off the ground mere inches from where he had been. He was up like a shot and trained his weapon on the hitman, who didn't seem to be as spry as he normally was. No matter, thought Sigma, guess the wolf new he was caught. He aimed for the head and squeezed the trigger. That's when, Seizure screamed, "Don't!" and instantly the masked crime fighter and loosened his grip on the trigger but when the meta fired once more at Ayana, Sigma fired.

The shot went wide as Wraith appeared just in time to push his arm aside.

"What the f#$%^ are you doing!" Growled Sigma who was ready to brain the big costumed hero.

Wraith ignored his partner and turned to Seizure. "You better have him." He said, "Otherwise I'm going to let Sigma make some art with his brains. You got me?"

The anger in Wraith's voice was evident. He was done playing around with this character and he was dead serious about finishing him off. The scuff on his forehead of his mask was still visible from where Grey's bullet had struck. If it hadn't been for his reinforced suit, meta-human reflexes and his hard head, he'd be six feet under and that just didn't sit kindly with him.

Sigma and Wraith stood by while Seizure penetrated the hitman's mind. The moment, the telepath lost control, they'd finish this cracker off once and for all but until then they tried to trust in the woman's unseen skills.

It seemed that Grey was under control and both Wraith and Sigma relaxed. They couldn't tell exactly what Kekoa was doing but their attention was diverted by Seizure when they mentioned that their were two more lurking about. At that moment, police sirens could be heard in the distance. Someone or more appropriately, many people, had called the cops. After all, they were having a gunfight in the parking lot of a popular mall across from a well-to-do apartment complex in the suburbs.

"Hey, the party crashers." Announced Sigma as he walked toward his blue Cordoba.

Wraith sighed and looked up at the twin towers across the street. They still had no idea, whether or not they were indeed the location of the array. Looking around, there were many other buildings tall enough to support the equipment necessary to triangulate the signal and with the cops on the way the search would have to wait. He considered flying up right then, but it occurred to him that the array they were looking for wouldn't be fluorescent green with a big neon sign over it saying 'destroy me'. It would blend right in with all the other crap that littered the tops of buildings.

Wraith looked over at the unconscious meta. The secret lied in the mind of that whack-job killer, unfortunately, Seizure wouldn't have the time to fish around his noodle for the answers while the cops were closing in.

"You got him, Kekoa?" Wraith said to the Polynesian-looking man in regards to their prisoner.

Wraith looked over at Seizure. "Well done." He complimented, the anger in his eyes now subsiding. "I really wanted to kill that kid." He commented rubbing his forehead, "Glad you stepped in when you did."

The shitty blue Cordoba pulled up beside Wraith. He opened the heavy door and put a boot inside. The police sirens were growing louder now and Sigma was starting to get a little anxious.

"Com'on, Wraith." He called.

"Give Sigma a call when you learn something. He knows how to reach me.... unfortunately." Wraith joked, "You and Kekoa take care of yourselves."

Wraith got into the car and Sigma peeled out.

_____________________________________________



During the fray the sleek black clad villain had slipped away. By the time, Seizure had learned of her presence she was already heading back up to the penthouse to report what had happened to Snow Angel. They were safe for now, but that freak, Grey Pyre had been captured and that did not bode well for them.

Apex Fusion was very disappointed when heard the news. He had high hopes for the hitman. He would have been quite the asset to Umbra.

"Well, looks like I made a mistake." He admitted to Door Knocker over the phone.

Jenny did not comment. It was enough that Apex would bother to confess to an error on his part, but in truth their leader believed in owning up to one's mistakes.

"What should we do?" Asked Door Knocker.

Apex checked the time on the wall and did some quick calculations in his head.

"Move the array to the secondary location." He instructed, "You'll have an hour to make the transfer. Don't be late."

The first of the morning light was on the horizon now, turning the sky a pale purple as the two woman began to clear out of the penthouse. Moving the array was a quick process, it was the drive that would take some time.

Ayana sat in the back seat as Kekoa drove, her hand hovering over their prisoner's head. The young man was in bad shape. He lay in a twilight, somewhere in between consciousness and unconsciousness, in an uncomfortable looking position diagonal across the back. The young man's weapon lay on the passenger seat along with two bottles of medication they had found in his pockets.

"Hey Kekoa, you may wanna give him a little more, he doesn't look so good," said Seizure as she looked down at Grey Pyre; the hitman was gasping in rasped, shallow breaths and his body was beginning to twitch again, his eyes rolled back in his head. The Polynesian rolled the window down and stuck his hand out towards the water until he held a bubble of pure water hovering above his palm. Ayana silently thanked whoever above for the road being empty. Sometimes she really wondered what planet her partner lived on. Without taking his eyes off of the road, Kekoa transferred the water to his other palm and snaked it around between the front seats. He then glanced in the rear-view mirror to direct it into the hitman's mouth. Grey involuntarily gulped it down, apparently mostly unaware of his surroundings at the moment. "That's enough, thanks," said Ayana. She then resumed her position, digging into his mind. As she relaxed her mind, her body settled into the seat and she fell still.

Images flashed, fuzzy and blurred at first, as though they all ran at once before they separated and replayed. There was a big man with a strange accent that came out warbled in her struggles to dig deeper. She couldn't make out his words but there was a mission, an important one, a dangerous one, and a lot of money. That seemed the most important part in Grey's mind. The dangers to himself, and especially to everyone . . . no . . . not everyone . . . the humans. He didn't seem to care. There was another with him, but Grey didn't seem to care about that either. Grey . . . Pyre . . . Greyson Pyre . . . that was the young man's name . . . so young . . . 25 years-old, and yet his entire life seemed embedded in crime. His personality was so cold, a pure killer . . . and he was good at it . . . She tried to guide and re-direct the floods of thought. She could dig into his life later, for now she needed to know about the big man and the dangerous mission. But the images seemed jumpy, skipping like a scratched disc, as though his brain was interrupting them.

"N#$*@r!" The abrupt shout jolted Seizure back out of his mind and she scowled hard.

"Shut your mouth, you racist jerk!" she snapped only for her scowl to quickly melt into surprise. The man was by no means cognizant enough to even speak any sense let alone insult her so specifically. His head lolled and he seemed to be unconsciously fighting a losing battle to keep his eyes open. They rolled unseeingly around, rolling back into his head every now and then, and periodically squinting with the pain of what was no doubt a serious headache. After another moment, the hitman's head jerked diagonally toward the back of the seat only to lull limply towards his shoulder again.

"Asshole!!" he screamed suddenly, the volume, while drowsy, in no way matching his pitiful looking state. At this, Seizure's eyes widened and she slowly looked up towards the mirror where Kekoa was peering with a furrowed brow.

"Oh my God," she said in a voice that was low with disbelief, "Kekoa . . . you don't think . . . " There was a slight pause before Kekoa shrugged and turned his eyes back to road again until they stopped at a red light.

"I've never seen anyone do that when I took their water away," he said, turning a little to look at the both of them. Seizure seemed to consider this more a moment before she whipped out her cell-phone and hit Sigma's speed-dial button.

"Sigma!" she exclaimed when he answered, "I've gotten a little bit on this guy. He's apparently a low-down criminal to the core, but he's working for someone, I couldn't get a good look at him but he's behind all of this. This punk was part of this lunatic's plan to do . . . something to the humans in this city, I'm not sure what. The images are really weird. They're . . . jerky . . . like static or interference, you know? There's interruptions and I think I know why," she glanced back at the young man again, shaking her head in disbelief before she continued. "Sigma, you're not going to believe this. This guy is an assassin and a meta and . . . and I think he has Tourette's syndrome."

As the blue Cordoba sped toward the streets of southeast Lakeview, Sigma's phone went off. "It's Seizure." he told Devon checking the display before receiving the call.

"Hey, what's up?" He answered and she immediately relayed what she had discovered about their captive villain.

"Well, looks like your little theory is pretty close to the mark." Sigma informed Wraith, "Straight from that bozo's brain, and there's something else. The guy's got Tourette's. Y' know, like that freaky, swearing woman that Rob Schneider was dating in that movie where he's a man-whore."

Wraith just grinned and shook his head. "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo." he replied.

"Yeah. That movie... Y' remember the girl?"

Devon nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I remember, but there's a little bit more to the syndrome."

"She also said the guy's a $%^&ing assassin workin' for the guy who set all this shit up."

Wraith nodded as he forced back a yawn. Things were just starting to get interesting but he was blasted and worse yet he had to work in three hours. A slight smile tugged at the side of Sigma's mouth as Wraith finally began to show signs of fatigue. Lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with him as well but he had been forcing back, awaiting to see when the powerful super-hero would finally break.

"Thanks, Seizure. You guys be careful with that freak now, y' here me. Don't be taken any chances with 'im. Let me know when you find out anything else... great... you take care now... see ya."

"Shit!" Exclaimed Sigma after he ended the call, "What the #$%^ are we supposed to do now?" he asked as the Cordoba pulled up in front of the Sheridan Barry apartment block.

Devon grabbed his duffle bag containing his costume and opened the door. "I'm not sure. All I know is that I need to get some sleep." he said wearily. Stepping out of the car, he closed the door and leaned down looking through the open window.

"Surely the world isn't going to go to hell in the next three hours. I'll talk to ya later."

As Sigma pulled away and continued south toward his garage, Devon trudged up the stairs and unlocked the main doors to the building. He let himself in and made sure that he didn't have any blood or anything else sinister on his person. Waving one last time, Devon shut the door and made his way to apartment 302. He unlocked his door and made a bee-line straight for his bedroom. Tossing his bag aside, he flopped down on his king-size bed and hardly stirred. As Devon slept, little did he suspect that all over the city people were beginning to rise with mild forms of the deformities. In time they would become worse. Right now the mutations that the Humans suffered hardly effected them, but still, not a one would arise and not be able to tell something was wrong with their appearance.

The sun was slowly creeping up over the city and most people were beginning to stir and stagger out of their beds. Just another typical work day, unfortunately there was nothing typical about this day. Already the emergency rooms were flooded with frantic parents and there now deformed children. Many of them were showing growths on their faces, but eventually the signal would begin to reshape their bones causing permanent damage. Damage which could only be reversed through a series of surgeries, or by taking the antidote that Apex Fusion was prepared to share for a price.



Devon awoke to an annoying, steady droning noise. His eyelids fluttered then opened wide when he realized that the sound was his alarm and he recalled acknowledging it what seemed like hours ago before he fell back asleep.



"Shit!" He exclaimed as the time on his bedside clock came into focus. He was two hours late! His first week and he was already having trouble maintaining a normal nine to five job.

With a wide yawn, Devon threw himself out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He quickly jumped through the shower, tossed on a towel and headed to the kitchen for a quick breakfast. As he popped a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster the blinking message light on his phone caught his eye. He didn't recall any messages last night and he figured it is was probably work wondering where in the hell he was.

He was incredibly late anyway so Devon didn't see what difference it would make if he took the time to make himself some coffee. He prepared himself a couple of cups, then walked over to this phone and hit the message manager button.

"Devon, this is Doctor Reinhardt. Don't bother coming in today..."

Devon shook his head. Well that didn't sound good at all.

"... I had to rush my kids to the hospital and many of the other staff members had to do the same. There's some kind of deforming virus, I've never seen anything like it. I'll keep you posted."

Devon was glad he was off the hook with work, but what was his boss talking about? Quickly, he ran into the living room and turned on the tv and found that every local channel and even CNN was focused on Chicago. The signal was already effecting the population and the city was in a panic. Not knowing what they're up against the CDC had declared a state of emergency, and FEMA is now in control of the situation. All exits out of the city haven been blocked and the airport shut down. Until they can confirm that the deformities are not viral no one can travel in or out of the city.

"Holy shit!" Was all Devon could utter when it was announced that a meta-human organization calling itself, Umbra had claimed responsibility for the affliction that had begun with the children but would attack all within the next twelve hours.

During an emergency press conference the mayor and head of the Chicago police department revealed that they had been in contact with the leader of Umbra and were currently negotiating their demands. Nothing else was said then of the terrorists that had brought the city to a stand still and Devon could find no other information on any channel. All he could find were interviews that were being conducted with specialists who believed they had the answer to what they were already calling a 'plague'.

Slate wandered into the coffee room that served as his kitchen and poured himself another cup of joe while listening to the TV he had on echoing through the garage bays. A news anchor was reporting the latest on the 'terrorist-plague' and informed the public that the organization known as Umbra is demanding twenty five million dollars in exchange for an antidote that will temporarily negate the effects of the air born toxin that causes deformities in Humans.

Leaning back against the orange countertop, Sigma sipped his black mire and pondered the demands of Umbra, which he himself considered chicken feed in comparison to the magnitude of the situation. Why not a hundred million? Hell, why not a billion? Umbra had a major US city under its thumb and the authorities couldn't do a thing to stop them. Slate doubted that they even realized yet that there was no toxin and it was a signal that was causing the spontaneous deformities to occur.

He also considered the witch hunts that this would bring about. Anyone that didn't develop the deformities would be pegged as a meta, as if their kind wasn't already having any problems maintaining a low profile before. In twelve hours all hell would break loose. It was basic Human nature, Sigma knew it well, just like he knew that the distribution of the antidote would not be a quick process. Priorities would have to be set, clinics organized, all of which would be too slow for Joe Public. Eventually, tempers would start to heat up and when they began to boil over the first thing people would do to ease their frustrations is take out their anxiety on the unaffected portion of the populace who according the news broadcasts would be meta's.

Sigma strolled back into the center bay which had been converted into his work shop and grabbed his phone.

"Hey, Devon. So what's the plan?"

"You hear back from Seizure yet?" Posed Wraith as he considered what their next more should be.

"Nope. Hard to say whether she'll get anything else out of the guy, his brains seem like their pretty scrambled."

"Yeah, maybe." Considered Devon as he stared out of his window, surveying the eeriely quiet, normally busy street below. "I'd suggest we head back to those two towers on the other side of town, but realistically after last night they'd be long gone. They would have relocated the array and by now have probably adjusted the signal so that it's next to impossible to detect."

"$%&#! Aren't we just the optimist this morning." Commented Sigma as he was already doing a cell tower sweep of the city and getting no where, fast.

"Say," mentioned Sigma, "what do you think of Umbra's demands? Seems a little fishy to me, maybe we should try and get our hands on some of that antidote.

"Way ahead of ya." Answered Devon as he surfed the net, searching to see if any clinics had been set up yet.

The captured assassin and Seizure were having a glaring contest. Kekoa stood by with the young man's gun, and the drugs and PDA they found in his pocket. One of the containers held vicodin and the other clonadine and from what little Seizure knew about the two, she figured he was telling the truth about the clonadine being what he needed to control his increasing tics. She maintained their distance from him, however and stood over him, handcuffed at the wrists and ankles to a chair. Still, he wasn't talking and it was getting harder and harder to read his mind with the incessant jerks in his waves. Now as she paced across him, she glanced at Kekoa out of the corner of her eye with a quizzical look which he returned an encouraging shake of his head. He knew the look. Her conscience was starting to twinge. By then she had been digging for a couple of hours, keeping the exhausted man up all night, and because of the broken control over what she saw, had begun to see a person within the cold killer. Not to mention, his medicine was completely out of his system and the severity of the young man's disorder was echoing loud and clear.

Both of them had heard every racial slur in the killers' repertoire and Ayana wasn't completely sure one of his body-shaking jerks hadn't injured his arms which were pulled tightly around the back of the chair. She wasn't the tough one. She never was. It was always Sigma's or Zoe's or anyone else's job to do the harsh tormenting questioning. She was just along to read minds. It was against her nature to hurt people unless she had to and even harder when she couldn't escape the lingering humanity in everyone. The downside to probing someone's mind, was you sometimes began to see things their way, see where they were coming from, and whether she agreed with them or not, it was only that much harder to see him as just an evil criminal. Still, their treatment of him was beginning to show benefit. After who-knew-how-long without sleep and the constant ticking that sometimes jerked his whole body and caused him to shout at the top of his lungs, Grey Pyre looked like he would simply collapse to the floor if they were to release his restraints. The closer he got to sleep, the more relaxed his mind would get.

Sighing, Ayana turned to Kekoa, keeping the hitman in her peripheral vision just in case.

"Any luck with that PDA?" she whispered; the Hawaiian shook his head.

"I think It's coded to lock anyone but him out," he replied. Seizure nodded, the disappointment and fatigue showing on her dark face as she turned with disdain back to their captive. "Keep going," said Kekoa with a smile. Ayana nodded and turned to look back at Grey again. The assassin tried to glare at her but ended up making faces, twitching and making sounds instead. He then looked away in tired frustration, his lips tightly shut.

"Look," she said for the umpteenth time that night as she loomed over him and leaned in close to his face, "you've got nowhere else to go and I can see you are suffering." Backing up, she took the clonadine from beside Kekoa and shook it in front of Grey. "I'll give you this if you just tell me who this Umbra is and where they're hiding. Or, you can stay quiet like this twitching and screaming and I can find out anyway." Grey just raised his eyes to her and stared silently for a moment.

"N#*%er bitch..." he muttered finally. Then shouted, "N#%&er bitch! N#@$%er!!" His body jerked painfully and in his exhaustion the young man grimaced but said nothing else. Ayana sighed in frustration and slammed the pills back on the table. They hadn't heard a voluntary word out of him all night. What made her think she would hear any now? Trying to clear her mind of the pain she'd dug up from his childhood, Ayana moved purposefully up to him and tried to hover her hands on either side of his head as another wave of twitching and jerking pulsed through him.

The tall man was in clear focus now . . . and messages from someone extremely fast and extremely impatient and extremely annoying . . . Grey was supposed to meet them . . . the place where they had fought appeared again, superimposed over the quote of a staggering amount of money . . . echoing in her mind, she heard his instructions not for the first time . . . keep the reactor unstable long enough for Highwayman to do his thing . . . she never could quite understand it . . . but how was he keeping a nuclear reactor unstable? And where was that man calling from? That man . . . he ran Umbra . . .

Seizure dug a little further, breathing deeply and trying to sink back into her relaxed state and ignore Grey's tics.

They needed Grey . . . his powers . . . so much potential, they said, that he hadn't used . . .

She gasped when another curtain of fog seemed to clear but kept her mind focused. She was getting closer, she could tell. Forcing herself to stay alert, Seizure focused harder bringing a fatigued whimper from the young man as the images flew before his eyes along with hers.

The man wasn't unknown . . . the name . . . he'd heard it . . . even in New York . . . not the real name, but the code name . . . A . . . Fission . . . Fusion . . . Fusing A . . .ex . . . Apex Fusion!

Seizure severed the connection and Grey's head dropped back over the chair, breathing as hard as she was as she whirled around to look at her partner with widened eyes.

"I got it!" she announced, "first of all, take that PDA out of here! He's the one screwing it up! Second of all, I've got the name! Apex Fusion! Go wake up Zoe and Cassius, I'm going to call Sigma. Zoe should be able to get through that PDA if we can't." Kekoa nodded and headed off to Zoe and Cassius' bedroom while Ayana closed the door to the little room where they kept the captive man and leaned against it, pulling out her cell phone.

"Sigma," she said, "I've got some information for you. First of all, this guy's name is Greyson Pyre and he's been a troublemaker pretty much his entire life for some of the lowest scum of the earth, until this guy, Apex Fusion found him. Apex Fusion . . . I've never heard of him, but apparently, he's in charge of this Umbra place. This guy has the power to disrupt things, machines I think. He was sent into the nuclear reactor to de-stabilize it so that they could use it to project this wave all over the city! He wants to turn all of the humans into metas. This Apex Fusion has an antidote apparently and he's going to use it to control the world. Also, look up Highwayman. Dunno his real name, Grey didn't know it. Grey also doesn't seem to know exactly where this Apex Fusion guy is, but I figured this was a good start." She let out a tired sigh and scratched her head in between the cornrows over her head. "I think that's honestly all I'm gonna get outta him tonight. We're both exhausted. I think I need to get some sleep, but Kekoa's gonna see if Zoe can crack his PDA. If they get anywhere with it, he'll call you."

As she hung up, she started to walk away when she heard "hey" come from behind the door. She paused and furrowed her brow. That was one tic she hadn't heard yet and after all that time alone in the room with him, Ayana was fairly certain she had a rundown of all he had. When she heard it again, louder and more deliberate this time, she cracked open the door and peered cautiously at him.

"What do you want?" she asked coldly.

Grey forced his tired head up to look at her and let a malicious grin slide across his face. "How much you gonna pay for my help?" Ayana furrowed her brow and glared at him.

"What're you talkin' about?" she demanded. Despite looking like he was ready to pass out, Grey let out a low snicker.

"I could go take out Umbra . . . " he rasped, "but only if you make it worth it."

When Slate noticed that he had a message on his phone he opened up another window and started up his video conferencing software so that he could continue conversing with Devon. The program opened up in one of his many other monitors and in moments, Devon had answered his call.

"What's up?" Inquired Wraith.

Slate just held up a finger, turned up the volume on his phone and let Seizure's message play. As they intently listened to the information she relayed, Umbra's plan was starting to come more into focus. Everything she had extracted from Greyson Pyre was accurate with the exception of her assumption that Apex Fusion was attempting to turn Humans into Metas. The hitman's mind was a minefield and even he wasn't sure on the specifics of what the signal did to the populace. His interpretation was close, but in actuality the signal was causing a mutation in Human's that generated deformities if only to strike fear in everyone. A fear that would make them react rashly and eagerly accept the antidote he offered; a serum engineered to fool even the most fastidious of bio-chemists. The plan was to ensure that the population demanded the antidote before any clinical trials, and with the speed at which the signal started to cause permanent damage this would most likely not be a problem. In reality, the signal itself was a diversion and the real goal was to get everyone taking Apex Fusion's bright green coloured serum which was highly addictive and mind numbing. Once the majority of the city was hooked on the serum, Apex would have his control, then would he unleash his true demands.

Once they were done listening to the message, Sigma called Seizure straight away while he was still online with Wraith so he could be in on the conversation.

"Seizure. Sorry to wake you, you're probably exhausted. Great work by the way. You wanna get Zoe to run a background check on Mr. Pyre and while Kekoa's working on the guy's PDA, Wraith and I are going to track down the Highwayman, and follow up on this 'miracle cure' being offered by Umbra."

The rooftop was vacant. Silhouetted in dawn's golden light a few pigeons waddled along the edge then their carefree morning was disturbed by sudden gust of wind that blew them off the building. A man now stood where a second ago there was nothing, it was the Highwayman and he was breathing hard.

"Alright, last one." Lance said into his hands-free phone as he procured a cell phone sized device from his satchel and approached radio tower.

WIIT, 88.9 FM, the Illinois Institute of Technology's radio station tower was the third and final stop for the speedy meta-human who had been running from location to location as fast as his legs could carry him. Struggling to catch his breath, the Highwayman swore he would never again volunteer his powers to Umbra's cause; he was wiped out! Apex had utilized his talents to help him transfer the signal to more covert sources.

He magnetically adhered the device in a non-descript location on the tower then entered the security code to engage it.

"Code entered." Announced Lance, "You can proceed with the triangulation."

"Thank you." Said Apex from his penthouse apartment and immediately began to transfer the existing signal to its new location.

The idea was to abandon the existing towers which would eventually be traced and transfer to the signal to three existing radio stations in the Chicago area. Once he finished the programming, Apex set in motion a transference that would prevent the signal from being discovered, now no one could interfere with his plans.

"Give me a reading off the regulator." Requested Apex, which Lance promptly offered. "Great," Praised Apex "the signal is strong. Well done Highwayman. Now if you would please return to your tower."

"Why?" Asked Lance, there's nothing there anymore.

"Ah, I know. They are decoy's now and I need you there to maintain the realism."

"Yes, sir." Answered the Highwayman.

Apex Fusion smiled and sat back in his chair. Everything was going according to plan and all he had to do know was to remind the mayor of Chicago of his demands. The signal was now hidden and even the most sophisticated machinery would not be able to differentiate it from the common radio waves. Only he and Lance were aware of the switch, which would make the defenses of his Umbra agents all the more realistic.

Kekoa had just barely descended into the basement where Zoe and Cassius often liked to sleep when the PDA lit up and his eyes went wide.

"It was him," said the Hawaiian, holding the PDA up to Zoe who was lighting a cigarette and peering over at him. "The password is Greyson Pyre," said Kekoa with a calm smile. Another set of footsteps made all of them jump to attention only to relax when Seizure emerged, dark circles enshrouding her eyes.


"I just talked to Wraith," she said, "he's going to go check out some of the stuff I pulled out of our little prisoner's head. In the meantime, Killswitch, see if you can dig up anything on him." Killswitch immediately turned and started on the computer, a stream of gray-blue smoke drifting over her head. Seizure sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I'm not sure I can spend too much more time around that guy," she said, "it's hard, when you're in someone's head, not to see them as . . . you know . . . people. He just tried to buy me off, offering to kill his own boss." She sighed again, rubbing her exhausted eyes. "I don't know, the fact that I even listened to what he said kind of worried me."

"Go to bed, Seizure," said Zoe, "you did fine." Seizure sighed, letting a relieved smile cross over her.

"Someone definitely needs to stand guard over him though," Seizure added, "I don't trust him. There could be more to his--."

"It's covered, Seizure," Zoe cut across her. Now Seizure peered over at her and Zoe managed to pull her eyes from the screen long enough to glance back at her. "We sent the Helen Keller kid to watch him." Seizure blinked at her, not quite sure if she should laugh or what.

"You . . . you sent a deaf-blind kid to guard an assassin?" she asked. Zoe didn't respond but Cassius laughed.

"That dude can handle himself, no prob," said Cassius, "worry not, dudette, go get some slumber."

Seizure blinked for a moment before she decided to just trust them and turn to head drowsily to bed.

Meanwhile, Zoe had already pulled up Grey's personal files from childhood to present and was dialing Wraith on the computer's phone.

"Wraith, it's Killswitch. I've got information on this Grey Pyre guy. He's been a real contribution to society his whole life. He's got all kinds of arrests for basic stuff. Drugs, assault, theft. Nothing really special. No murder charges, so he's gotta be good at what he does. The last record is from about 5 years-ago when he was ordered into rehab and never showed. I'm guessing that's about when he started doing the big time stuff because there's nothing until he was reported by some low-level organized crime boss as a meta and now he's on RAID's watch list. Only thing that's really interesting here is he's the son of Stan and Natasha Pyre, you know, the entrepreneurs? They own ComCo. That company makes and distributes everything from shampoo to power tools. They're f#*%in' millionaires. From what it looks like, their 6 other kids are all on the straight and narrow. Just twitchy up there I guess went sour."

She listened for a little while, nodding unnecessarily until she was about to hang up when she noticed Kekoa approaching and holding out his hand to wait.

"Hold on," said Zoe through the cigarette between her lips, "Kekoa wants to tell you something." She pushed the rolling chair away from the computer so Kekoa could move up to the mic.

"I got the PDA working," he said, "the password is Greyson Pyre. It's got all of the plans in it."

"WHAT?!" Zoe exclaimed, rushing over and snatching it out of his hand. Kekoa's face remained impassive and his voice betrayed nothing in the way of his thoughts or feelings on the whole thing.

"Just thought you'd like to know," he said and hung up.