FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

To Death.

It had been a week since the Qularr attack on Millennium City, and people were still picking up the pieces of their once, near idyllic lifestyle. Heroes had come from far and wide to assist in the cities reconstruction and protection. Quite a few gangs had taken root in the city's different sectors, and police were struggling to maintain order. Yet more heroes streamed into the city every day, eager to help with the dauntless task of maintaining law.

While streets stayed mostly safe, the underground sewers were a totally different story.

They had become a breeding ground for depraved and illegal activities. Criminals of all sorts would use the otherwise hidden sewers as meeting grounds for their dealings of drugs, weapons, people trafficking, and murder.

Many heroes had been sent into the sewer tunnels to flush the criminals out, to force them to return to the surface where police would be waiting to arrest and charge. Most heroes made it back out alive, fresh wounds or injuries, but otherwise unscathed.

Some, however, never returned from the dark tunnels.

Crime lords had shifted their attention from their normal trade to the heroes, focusing on removing the do-gooders from the city so as to make it a haven for lawlessness and crime, spreading their forces across the city.

It looked like Millennium City would never see the prosperity it had before.

Arch Nemeses of heroes had also moved into the city during the after-battle confusion of the Qularr attack, and were spreading their own minions across the already crippled city, plotting their grand schemes of domination and destruction. While many had been already captured by their law abiding counterpart, some had been discovered having died during the alien invasion, fighting not only with the Qularr, but also their hero adversaries; their corpses were usually discovered during the clean-up.

One, whose ongoing struggle against their hero had been waged for so long that it was more a quarrel between friends, had been discovered early, and their hero had wept at his demise. When the hero had been asked about his reaction, he had replied simply:

"You don't truly know someone until you've fought with them. He never tried to take over the city, or destroy the world; he was out to make my life interesting. I was his hunter, and he was my all too willing prey... a hunter is nothing without his prey."

For one hunter, the hunt would soon end.

The mechanical powerhouse that was known as Peacebringer, once a military weapon to fight against terrorists, now used the name for what he brought to those who got in his way; the peace of the grave. He had been sent out to hunt down and retrieve a scientist who had fled with military property, a bodysuit that gave the wearer incredible durability and access to complex and powerful weaponry. Unfortunately, while out on his mission, he had been exposed to radiation from a nuclear disaster zone, known only as the Atomic Wasteland. After that, he became self aware, and greatly despised the one whose existence was his mission. A few defeats at her hands drove him further into his own madness, and his plots to kill her since extended to simply kill everyone. Currently, he was using a portion of the sewers to transport his latest grand scheme's key, a new energy source capable of creating more destruction than any amount of atomic weapons. The crocodile-like head of the mechanical monstrosity watched his self-created robotic minions move the gently glowing crate with utmost care. His tail clicked gently as it moved behind him, and he was evilly cheerful at his latest plan.

Even if he were to be discovered and fought, there was nothing that could stop him now.

The door behind him exploded off its hinges, and the heavy metal panel bounced off his shoulder almost harmlessly. He'd improved his frame since last he and his hero had met, and he was sturdier than ever before. He nonchalantly turned his head to the doorframe.

"Ah," He rumbled his voice deep and gravely, "You're here."

He turned slowly, his size causing him to loom over his opponent greatly.

"About time."

Calamity let the power in her new armour suit pulse gently; it was amazing what Frostfire had managed to do with it in such a short amount of time. Her weapons were stronger than ever, as were her defences. The colour that her suit would glow would change depending on what form of attack she was using, glowing golden for her most powerful attacks, and blue or off blue for most everything else. She glared at him as another figure stepped to her side.

"My, my, what have we here?" Peacebringer probed. "A new ally..? Why, is that not Gisele? Gisele the Firework, how are you? I've not seen you since we were in Stronghold. I half expected you to still be there, but teaming up with Supers? Dear oh dear, the others will be most disappointed.

"Why are you bothering me, have you not other heroes to explode?" He snapped angrily, waving an arm. "I'm busy, get lost!"

Calamity sighed and shook her head, stepping into the room and right up to the robot. "We know what you're up to, Peacebringer!" She barked. "I would advise you surrender yourself; maybe we'll be lenient."

Peacebringer growled. "Give up?" He parroted. "Why on any planet you can name would I do that?" He roared and pushed her back through the door, lowering himself to all fours angrily. "It took three of your best heroes to stop me last time!"

He charged forward, his steps loud and thunderous, only to slam against an invisible barrier and be thrown back. Gisele stepped into the room, her arm held up as magic glittered about her hand.

"Too bad she brought a villain this time!" She shouted. With a flick of her hand, she flung him into a concrete wall, a corner, the sharp edge bending his back at an impossible angle. The villain clambered to his feet, sparks jolting around him from the damage, and he looked to the minions that were leaving, or rather, who had just left. He grinned, well, his toothy maw was always grinning, but he seemed more cheerful, and he pulled a small circular device from his belt.

"Catch this, you stupid girl!" He shouted, throwing it at Gisele, who cringed. The sphere stuck to her side and started to glow, and she looked down at it in puzzled terror. She tried to pull it off, but it seemed to have fused to her scaled skin, and she gave Peacebringer a terrified look.

"Consider it a parting gift, you traitorous bitch!" He snapped, running to the tunnel his minions had escaped through and grabbing the hatch that would seal it. "See you in hell!"

With that, he slammed the hatch down and locked it tight behind him.

Gisele, now frantic at trying to pull the device, which was glowing brighter and brighter, off of her skin, turned a terror filled, yet caring face to Calamity.

"G-go!" She snapped, the snake surrounding herself in a shield. "I don't know what it does, but I can't get it off! GO!"

"Gisele, I can't just leave you!"

Calamity tried to push her way into the room, but a barrier stopped her, holding her outside the door.

"Gisele! Let me in! Maybe I can disarm it, or break it, or something!"

"I can contain it, just go! I don't want you to get hurt! Please, Calamity!"

Calamity hesitated; she didn't want to leave Gisele behind. She'd known the snake for a little over one week, and already considered her to be one of her best friends. She slapped her armour plated hands against the barrier, as if it'd break from her rather minor amount of abuse, and stared at the scene she was being forced to witness.

The device stopped shining brighter, and gave a loud whine. Gisele stared into Calamity's eyes through her visor, tears running along her cheeks.

"Goodbye-"

=================

Calamity wearily climbed the ladder to the surface, pushing her way back through the manhole. She was helped up by Frostfire, a fellow superhero. She tugged her helmet off and stared at the bitumen between her feet, her eyes still wide, her breathing laboured and heavy, as if she'd run a race.

"... Calamity?" Frostfire probed. "Calamity, what is it? Where's Gisele?"

She only stayed silent, staring at the floor, before letting tears start to fall from her eyes.

"I don't know," She huffed, "I think... I think she's dead."

Rhapsody took a disbelieving step forward, grabbing Calamity's shoulders. "What?! What happened?!"

"I don't know!" Calamity snapped, closing her eyes as she gently cried. "We were fighting Peacebringer, or rather Gisele was fighting him single-handed, and he threw this... thing." She lifted a small piece of shrapnel from the device up for Rhapsody to scrutinise. "It glowed brighter and brighter, Gisele couldn't get it off her skin, it stuck like it had been part of her all along. She wouldn't let me try to help, sealing me out with a shield, and then there was a bright light!

"When the light faded, the room was obliterated. It looked like someone had set off a nuclear bomb and contained it to that room."

She gritted her teeth and took a sharp breath. "When the light faded... she was gone."

Rhapsody turned the shrapnel shard over in her hand like she'd never seen anything more interesting, before pushing it into Frostfire's hands.

"Calamity, was there anything else in the room?" She demanded, shaking her. "Tell me!"

"Peacebringer's minions were moving some large container beforehand with the same eerie glow, but they left before we started fighting him," She replied, "I couldn't see what was in it, but it looked heavy."

Rhapsody snarled and leapt down the manhole, despite Frostfire's protests. She stormed the path that Calamity and Gisele had taken, striding angrily into the room. As Calamity had said, the destruction was extensive, not even a pile of ashes remained of where Gisele had stood. She sniffed the air, scenting in the destruction, before turning her attention to the hatch that had been closed, the way that Peacebringer had fled. She moved across the rubble covered floor and, with one arm and all her fury, wrenched the door open, almost off its hinges. She stepped into the gloom and sniffed again, before gently waving her hand through the air, watching as the air and particles in it moved. She snarled again, closing the hatch as she left. She stepped to the door, stopping only to use her magic to make a small flower wreath on the floor before she left, she too feeling the sorrow of loss.

She and Gisele had never really seen eye to eye; she'd never forgiven the albino reptile for almost killing Frostfire years before, and the snake had always simply taken it. She'd been at the brunt of Rhapsody's fury many times, but had always simply accepted the punishment, her face always with the expression that she deserved it, like she were trying to atone for her wrongdoings by simply letting her past haunt her.

That didn't mean she hated the snake.

Gisele would never forget anything important, a rare trait amongst earthen people. She was learning magic from the alien female at an alarming rate. She'd thrown herself in front of almost everything that had been thrown at Rhapsody and her friends, taking the brunt of the attack and never once asking for thanks.

In only a week, the reptile had grown on her, and her death was stinging as much as when she had almost lost Frostfire.

Rhapsody reappeared from the manhole, resisting Frostfire's attempts to help her up. She managed to take a step or two before sagging to her knees.

"She's really gone." She mumbled sadly. "I've... She threw herself before everything that could have killed us, and she always bounced back, but..." She shook her head, trying to get the thoughts from her head. "I've always said that I... I wanted her dead, but... I never meant it..!"

Frostfire nodded sadly, before helping Rhapsody back to her feet.

"We don't have time to mourn here," He said, "Head back to our safe house; I'll go to Millennium central and hand in our report. I will be right there, so don't dawdle."

The two girls nodded sadly, Rhapsody gently levitating before flying into the distance. Calamity moved to pull her helmet back on, hesitating before she did.

"I can't believe... she's gone." She mumbled.

Frostfire nodded. "We shall talk back at base," He said, "This is not something for public ears."

Calamity nodded, tugging her helm on and sealing it tight before the thrusters in her boots activated and she was launched into the skies, flying of at a high speed. Frostfire sighed and looked down at the shrapnel in his hand, pocketing it before his suit engulfed itself in flames and he flew back towards Millennium central. One of the officers left at the scene pushed the manhole cover back on and sealed it tight, bolting it down and marking a cross with red spray paint.

Down in the darkness of the now destroyed sewer tunnels, something stirred.

=================

Frostfire landed back at home base, tapping the side of his helmet and making the visor go up so he could retina scan in. The door beeped, clicked, and slid open. He walked in, finding no real signs of life until the door shut and locked again, and Calamity, or rather the woman inside the suit, Fortune Harrisbrooke, came around the corner and embraced him, still crying her eyes out. Rhapsody edged around the corner as well and bore a solemn, mournful face.

"She's really torn, Aiden." She said sadly. "More than when she thought you had died."

"I didn't have to watch him die." Fortune sobbed. "I didn't have to see the look of horror on his face, to hear him say goodbye before he..."

"Exploded." Frostfire finished for her. He gently tugged her from him, holding her gently at arm's length. He'd not seen this side of Calamity before; never witnessed her mournful or depressed like she was now. It stung at him like a dagger to see her torn up this much. "How close were you?" He asked. Calamity hung her head.

"Too close," She said, "I was inches from her, could see the utter terror in her eyes. Why wouldn't she let me help?! I could have done something, anything! I-I could have shot the device, or cut it off of her body! I could have done something, and then she wouldn't be gone! Why wouldn't she let me help?!"

"Because that's what Peacebringer wanted." Frostfire said, tugging his helmet off. "He would have wanted you to try, that way he might have got you both; he probably expected you to try; we heroes are predictable in that sense. Gisele was a villain, she knew what he wanted, what the device was going to do, she knew the danger that thing posed. She didn't want to see you get hurt saving her life.

"She'd rather die alone than see you be hurt."

The three stood in near silence, the solemn quiet broken up only by Calamity's weeping. She'd been torn deeper than the others, knowing Gisele's rather grim history, having been the one to look after her when other heroes tried to fight her themselves and she'd been too wounded to go out and fight for two days. She'd had to watch the female she'd been teaching about being a hero die before her very eyes, afraid and unwilling. Eventually, Rhapsody broke the silence.

"I... know what it was that exploded," She mumbled, "Or, rather, I know what fuelled it."

The others turned their attention to her.

"The shuttle I arrived on earth in was powered by a magically charged energy core; it could have powered the shuttle for thousands, even millions of years without ever running out of energy. It leaves behind a very familiar scent that I've always been able to smell. Even with this scarf on, I could smell its residue, especially on that shrapnel fragment.

"Somehow, Peacebringer got his claws on that power source; he's using it to create weapons." She finished, worriedly.

Fortune blinked at her. "How destructive could this... energy source be?"

Rhapsody scratched the back of her head, and brushed some hair from her face. "Well..."

"Rhapsody, answer the question." Aiden pushed, like a father scolding a child.

Rhapsody mumbled something, too quiet for the two humans to hear, before shying away slightly.

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that," Aiden said, "Try speaking up."

"More than a nuclear bomb." Rhapsody mumbled.

"How much more?"

Rhapsody shrivelled beneath their dual gazes nervously. "Enough to blow up a continent."

Aiden covered his face with a palm. "And this is now in the hands of someone who has no qualms using it as such," He said, "Lord Almighty."

"We still have some time, though," Rhapsody informed, "It will take even him weeks, maybe months, to decipher how to use it to that extent. He knows how to duplicate it to a lesser extent, as has been evidenced by the weapon he used to... the weapon he used; but managing to get a main reactor to explode in such a way will take a long time; it wasn't designed to detonate, only regulate and direct energy.

"We should be spending the time we have trying to find his trail. It shouldn't be too difficult, the reactor, if not shielded properly, will attract creatures from the nether, and he'll have enough trouble fighting them off before we find him."

"I want to go back." Fortune said faintly. "To where she... died. I... I need to go back."

The others glanced at her distantly, as if she'd gone nuts. "Fortune, we've just lost one of our team's members; every villain in Millennium City will have heard by now! They'll think we're a prime target, we cannot risk ourselves by going out."

Fortune nodded slightly, and then jumped as there was a knock at the door. Rhapsody looked out the spy hole, and gave an 'all clear' signal, meaning that she recognised the person on the other side, before opening the door.

"Myst, how nice to see you," She said honestly, "We're... not exactly in the mood to entertain today, but you're welcome to come in."

Myst, a heavy-duty spell caster from a different hero team, had been friends with Rhapsody for a long time. She'd been one of the cities best magic using heroes for years.

"I heard about what happened," She said sadly. "As did the rest of my team; we wanted to offer our condolences."

Rhapsody and Aiden nodded thankfully, but Fortune only stared dismally at the coffee table in the lounge as she sat down.

"Is... is Fortune going to be alright?" Myst asked concerned.

"She just lost a fellow hero and a friend before her very eyes." Aiden mumbled. "You try to find someone who wouldn't be a wreck after that. She's shell shocked, and her emotions are in tatters."

"I'm sorry," Myst mumbled, "Maybe I should have waited before..."

"It is fine, Myst." Rhapsody said. "We're all a little broken up about what Peacebringer has done." She growled a little. "He needs to pay for what he's done."

"He'll pay." Fortune mumbled from the lounge, her face now determined. "Oh, he'll pay."

"Though it leaves me curious," Aiden mumbled, "Gisele was a conduit."

"She was a what?!" Myst snapped. "Gisele was a living conduit!?"

Aiden nodded. "She was grown, built, by scientists who were plotting to use her to kill all magic using heroes. There's not much data, but the data that does exist is that they were from Viper."

"She'd been awoken by the lead scientist simply so that he could kill her the minute the flow began." Fortune said. "She... the magic had already taught her things, languages, spells, how to walk and talk, and what her 'father' was plotting.

"That's why she was so powerful," Fortune concluded, "she had endless amounts of mana to draw from."

"I'm curious as to where that mana now goes." Aiden said. "I mean, does it return to the nether and then flow out another Conduit? Because if not, we should have seen a huge well of mana explode from those sewers."

Myst leaned against the doorframe, crossing her feet. "It doesn't work that way, not for conduits that have been in power for years." She said knowingly. "It can't just redirect willy-nilly, there's too much mana that needs to go out through the conduit that's been destroyed. Usually, the conduit will hop, jumping to the nearest object that it can attach itself to."

The trio looked over at Fortune, who gave them an innocent look.

"Don't look at me; I've not noticed any changes in my powers." She snapped defensively. "No fireballs or freak lightning or anything."

"Fireballs?" Myst asked sarcastically, almost laughing. "Look, Fortune, if you'd become the new conduit, fireballs'd be the least of your worries. Anything that becomes the new conduit will practically explode with magic; I wouldn't be surprised if the conduit created a black hole."

"I've not seen any abnormal gravity distortions." Aiden mumbled. "Not detected anything out of the ordinary at all, it's as if she never left us at all."

Myst stayed quiet, staring at the floor in thought. "Then... I don't know; I don't have an explanation."

The trio blinked as Fortune tried to walk past them out the door, donned in her armour and pulling her helmet on. Aiden stepped in front of her quickly.

"Get out of my way, Aiden." She snapped.

"I can't let you out there, Fortune, not in your condition."

"Move out of my way or I'll make you move!"

"Fortune,"

"Don't tell me no, I'm going!" She snapped.

"But what happens if goons find you? Huh? What happens if you're attacked all on your own?"

Fortune pulled her helmet on, sealing it tight to her suit and grabbed Aiden by his collar, tugging his face to her own with an angry growl.

"Then they'll regret it."

She shoved him hard to one side, using his own weight against him before striding out the door. The thrusters in her boots were the last things to be heard, quickly growing quieter as she got farther and farther away.

"We have to go after her!"

"Don't worry about her." Myst mumbled. "AH will be trailing her."

"I still reckon that is the worst superhero name ever." Rhapsody grumbled.

Myst giggled a little. "You've obviously not ever talked with him," She said, "He really is an asshole."

"Yes, but to call himself Ace Hole is just taking it a bit too far, isn't it?"

A single dart slapped against a window, a suction cup keeping it held there. A small piece of fabric unrolled from behind the suction cup with the words: 'fuck you' printed in large, otherwise friendly letters.

"No, not really no." Myst commented, smiling at it.

=================

Calamity landed at the manhole, watching a police vehicle drive by. They had waved at her, and she didn't bother to respond; her presence made their lives a little bit easier, not many are willing to do crime while there is a hero about. She knelt down to the manhole cover and gripped a bolt.

She knew that the cover had been bolted into the concrete, it was now a mausoleum for Gisele, and the final respect of the police was to assure that it remained undisturbed by those who would vandalise it. She unscrewed the bolts and was ready to shift the metal plate aside when she heard a shuffling behind her. Not even bothering to turn, she sighed and rolled to one side, just as the metal pipe was swing at her midsection. It missed terribly, and she rolled back onto her feet, looking about the street. There were dozens of Black Aces gang thugs.

She was surrounded.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" One thug asked smugly. "A super all alone? What say we give her a good welcome to our turf boys?"

Calamity sighed inside her helmet, the worst these thugs were packing were pistols, and they wouldn't even penetrate her outermost defences. Still, she wasn't in the mood at all to deal with them.

"Here's a deal for you all," she began, "how about you all leave, and I don't almost kill you all, does that sound good?"

One of the thugs, one carrying a knife, angrily ran at her, and she hit him hard across the face before grabbing his leg and hurling him down the street, where he lay still. The others, at seeing their fellow thug fall so easily, decided that she couldn't possibly fight them all at once.

Oh how wrong they were.

Her armour dimmed, charging power to the emitters that lined it, and when the thugs drew close enough she released, and the following pulse of energy was strong enough to throw them all back dozens of metres. One thug, however, seemed content to shoot at her with his gun, the bullets of which bounced off her armour harmlessly as she simply glared at him. There was a thwack, his head jolted, and a loud sarcastic laugh rang out before he tumbled to the bitumen. Calamity, a little shocked at this but recognising the laugh, looked up to the rooftops and watched a rifle barrel disappear behind a roof. She smiled and tapped her help, tapping into the frequency she knew he'd be on.

"That was unnecessary." She said sternly.

"He was shooting at a fellow hero." Ace Hole's voice replied. "It was my duty. Could you collect the bullet, they're expensive."

"Come collect your own bullet!"

"Can't, busy."

Calamity sighed and leaned on one hip. "Doing what?"

"Eating a doughnut."

She sighed and stepped over, collecting the slug and tucking it into a pocket.

"Don't worry about these guys," Ace's voice said through her earpiece, "The cops're going to show up in about ten seconds with a whole bus. You go back to where you were goin'."

Calamity nodded, moving to the manhole and pulling the cover off as the police arrived. She left the cover off, climbing down the hole.

Up on the rooftop, Ace smiled a smile he hadn't in a long time; a caring smile.

Calamity stood in the cold dark, staring into the pitch darkness. She sighed and turned on her night vision. It was a unique toy, her night vision; it could tolerate bright lights without blinding her, phasing back to real vision should light become intense enough, and wasn't bothered by the light her weaponry or armour gave off.

She stepped into the gloom, sadly eyeing the walls that had supported her not three hours ago as she struggled to stand. Finally she managed to get to the room in question, and she could remember the event as if it were still happening before her.

Gisele, almost too afraid to move; hand around the strange device as she stared at Calamity with terror in her eyes.

She didn't know why she had returned. It didn't make her feel any better, only worse, to know this is where her newest friend had met her end, as she had to watch, powerless to help. For once, a hero had not been able to save the day; she'd only had to watch the end come. She stepped into the room, over a wreath of flowers that she assumed Rhapsody had left behind. She knelt down to them, brushing a bit of stray dust from a rose. She smiled at it, letting it tell her silently that even Rhapsody, who liked Gisele the least, had come to like her enough to mourn.

She'd always had to break the two up, Rhapsody fighting with Gisele like sisters, though Rhapsody would usually start the fights in question. She guessed that, through their shared dislike of each other, a bond had formed that was as strong as any other. The thoughts made tears tap onto the inside of her visor, only to be swept away when her suit self-cleaned them off.

"Oh Gisele," she mumbled to no-one in particular, "Why wouldn't you let me help?"

"She was afraid." Ace's voice replied gently, making Calamity jump a little, forgetting she had left the radio on. "She was afraid that she would survive and you wouldn't. She was afraid that she'd have to tell the others that you had died. She was afraid, above all, that she'd lose all purpose to life."

"A-Ace..?"

"I knew enough, listening in and learning from Frostfire, what she treasured." He said solemnly. "She had a purpose, to protect the world and those in it. She had a purpose to protect her team more than herself, she valued your life more than her own, and you were her purpose to live."

"I..."

"She hadn't had someone worry about her since before she nearly killed Frostfire. It was that kind of caring that she wanted, she'd never had having killed her own traitorous father the moment she was born. She didn't view you as her friends or her team mates, you were her family. I know from experience the pain of loss, the suffering it causes.

"She was afraid that if she lost you... She wouldn't have survived."

Calamity nodded sadly, crying in her helmet.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have interrupted you." Ace said solemnly. "I just... thought you needed to know that, if anything, she valued you more than as a friend."

Calamity heard the connection cut, and she tugged her helmet off her head to cry more openly.

On the street, kneeling over the manhole cover, surrounded by police, Ace brushed a tear from his face and left a single white rose before using a grappling hook to return to his domain upon the rooftops of Millennium city.

After a few minutes, Calamity had cried herself dry. She pulled her helmet back on and sealed it tight. She felt hollow now, like she herself had nothing left to live for. She got to her feet and reached for the door on the rubble covered floor, lifting it to put it back in place, to preserve the room. She slotted the door in place, and turned to take one final look about the room, before she moved the door enough to walk out.

Something in the room, in the inky blackness, stirred.

She heard it first, a gentle huffing, someone breathing heavily. She turned; almost outraged at the thought that someone had snuck down here. She didn't see anyone, her night vision not picking up a single thing, and even the breathing stopped. It started again a moment later, however, coming from where the door had been on the floor.

She could pick up, in her ears, that the breathing was from a female, and it sounded slightly scared. She switched her night vision to thermal, and instantly saw what it was that was breathing heavily.

There, lying on the floor amidst the dust and rubble; was a female. She had a long tail, at least as long as one of her arms, and her legs ended in digitigrade feet, with claws on each of her six toes. Her flesh was scaled, each one obviously had been camouflaged to hide her from the human, and her head featured a large plate, like an adapted scale, with three points. Another two followed this, slightly lower on her skull, protecting the top of her spinal column. Her eyes were closed, and, when Calamity looked closer, she could see a slight shine beneath her that she had missed when picking up the door.

Calamity tugged her helmet off and clipped it to her belt, hurrying to the female's side. She was small, only appearing to be early teens in age, and Calamity fearfully put a hand on her arm.

"Gisele..?"

The girl's eyes opened, her bright orange irises staring directly at Calamity's own, glowing in the darkness like LED lights.

"C... Calamity..?" She asked, shifting slightly to pull at Calamity's arm gently. "Fortune..? I... I'm alive?" The reptile yelped as she tugged at Calamity's arm, something paining her. Her scales removed their camouflage on their own, slowly revealing the naked serpent as she started to cry.

Fortune tugged her cloak from her back, finally finding a use for the space blanket she'd kept at all times for emergency occasions, and gently covered Gisele's front with it before motioning to turn her over.

"I'm going to check for wounds, try not to move too much, you might aggravate them." She said, rolling the serpent onto her side. A large group of gashes were across her back, luckily missing her spine, and what looked like third degree burns were where she remembered the device sticking to the scaly flesh. Calamity quickly wrapped the serpent up in the blanket completely, before rolling her back and lifting her gently.

"It's going to be alright, Gisele, I promise you're going to be alright." Calamity said reassuringly to the now smaller female. "Just hold on tight, I'll get you out of here, and we'll get you into an ambulance, just hold on."

"I feel tired, Fortune..." Gisele mumbled as Calamity pushed the door to the room to one side roughly. "So... tired."

"I know you're tired, Gisele, but you need to stay awake for me now, please just stay awake. You'll get some sleep soon, but you have to stay awake!"

Gisele nodded gently, barely able to do even that as Calamity ran as hard as she could to the manhole cover. She skidded to a stop, looking up at the circular hole to freedom and the flashing police lights above.

"Gisele, I need you to hold my shoulders, please hold my shoulders as tightly as you can; this is going to be a tight squeeze."

Gisele nodded for what she could, putting all her energy into holding onto Calamity's shoulders for dear life, while Calamity held her under her shoulders. The thrusters in Calamity's boots sparked, and the pair were gently pushed up out of the manhole and into the street, where police were waiting.

Calamity laid Gisele on the street, still wrapped in the blue and silver reflective cloak.

"Get an ambulance!" Calamity snapped, waving at the police who approached. "Get a goddamned ambulance! What, am I surrounded by thugs or something? If you don't want to be in the ambulance, move!"

Calamity lifted Gisele from the bitumen, hurriedly carrying her over to an open ambulance waiting nearby as the personnel inside moved to pull the stretcher out.

"Leave that there, I'm coming in!" Calamity snapped, clambering into the ambulance and gently laying Gisele on her side on the stretcher. She turned to the ECP and started to gently reveal Gisele's back.

"Multiple deep lacerations to the back and third degree burn to back and side, she's lost a lot of blood for her size, she's continuing to bleed out. Subject is a female, human reptile hybrid, AB negative who can take human donor blood. She's a magic user, so the use of magic treatment is not advised, as she may just absorb the spell."

The doors slammed shut as the emergency care practitioner moved to grab some antiseptic swabs, Calamity opening the sedative valve on a nearby bottle and putting it to Gisele's face.

The vehicle quickly drove off, manoeuvring around other vehicles in the street with its siren blaring.

Up on the rooftop where Ace was watching, he flicked on his radio.

"Breakers, this is Ace, repeat, Breakers this is Ace;" he called, "Breakers are advised to head to Millennium hospital, Calamity will rendezvous with you there, over." With that, he turned his radio off. He pushed one of his patented joke rounds into his rifle, and aimed at a police car which still had occupants, eagerly getting the winds right. The dart slapped into the windscreen, frightening the daylights out of the police, and he hid back up on the roof as he reloaded with a smile.

"Hold on, Gisele." He said to himself faintly. "We've got you."