Helion

Cassidy had gotten two different arm modifications installed; one was a retractable gladius that gave her spontaneous and deadly close-quarters retaliation, and the other was a multi-function projectile launcher. The small battery of tubes could fire anything from darts to bolas to taser wire. It was an effective tool for espionage and crowd control but offered little in the way of lethality.

She also picked up her own, unmodified Deckland in case she needed to work on targets out of range. Michael had offered time on the range to get accustomed to their weapons, but they were pressed for time and bid their farewells. Eve expressed her intention to return to see Michael once things had settled, and the man smiled and nodded at her as they exited the building.

“I'll be there in 15 minutes. I got caught up serving a Black king; you know how it is.” Eve hoped the text would be enough to take some of the heat out of Jasper's indignation. Regardless of how the woman felt about Eve, neither of them would allow their duty to the Black Men to be interrupted by something like a dinner reunion. Unfortunately, Eve also knew just how deep Jasper's indignation ran.

As they piled into the car, Cassidy asked Carmine for a smoke, and they all relaxed on the long bench seat, basking in the after-fuck glow. Cassidy put her hands behind her head, fiddling with the cigarette between her lips as she asked, “You tried your powers yet? Is that what happened to Michael?"

Eve took a long drag before letting the smoke wisp out of her nose.

"Honestly, I couldn't say. I haven't put the powers into practice, if that's what you mean. I almost did back at that cultist apartment—damn near brought the whole fucker down. Hold up.” Eve slipped her Deckland from its holster and racked the slide, ejecting a single brass cartridge. She rolled it between her fingers, and it was soon coated in a rainbow swirl. "Now, let's try this.”

Suddenly, the bullet wasn't a bullet. It was a thousand grains of dusty sand falling to the carpet beneath her feet. "Huh..." she collected another, this one flashing into a pink rose petal. "Again." Yet another bullet transformed into a strong arc of electrical discharge, momentarily numbing her fingers. “AH FUCK!! That surprised the hell out of me, Jesus!”

Eve sucked on her fingers as the girls sat in quiet contemplation. “So you change the bullets like that? Like, you have to say 'ok, change now’ and then it changes? Do you have any control over what it changes into?” Carmine slid her arms over the back of the bench seat, staring up at the roof of the car.

“Uhhh, yeah? It's not even really a ‘thought’ so much as it is my... will? It just listens to my intention, I guess. And no, I have no idea what it's going to do. I'm assuming the original size of whatever is changed is maintained based on the fact that we didn't end up buried in sand or in the middle of a rose bush.”

“I wonder if the thing you change can change something else? Like, touch two bullets together and see if the first bullet can change the second.” Cassidy wondered aloud as Carmine played with her hair. Eve was rapidly depleting bullets by doing this; good thing they stocked up.

"So, kind of like... this is how you meant it, right?” Eve coated the first bullet and then touched the two together to show Cassidy.

“Yeah, now change the first one without even thinking about the second.”

Eve did, and both bullets flowed together and produced a small bird's egg, which fell to the floor and broke open. “Huh, would you look at that?" Cassidy remarked, staring at the broken egg with wide eyes.

“Ahhhhhhh shit! My fuckin’ carpet! Goddamnit Cassidy!”

Cassidy leaned forward, gesturing to the egg. “How's that my fuckin’ fault?! Did I know what it was going to do?! Why didn't you fuckin’ catch it?! Get off my fucking sack, you knock-off hooker. Damn.”

“Laaaadiiieeeeesss, smarten up. Eve, do you think you could, like, throw your color? Like... out of your hand?”

Eve glared at Cassidy, who childishly stuck out her tongue before taking another pull on her smoke. Looking at Carmine, Eve shrugged. “Guess I could try.”

She pooled a small amount of the color in her hand and then flicked it against the window. Small speckled dots ran down the glass, leaving a pearlescent smear behind them.

"It makes sense considering what you did to that hallway. I wonder if it'll fade on its own or if that's, like, permanent now."

Eve frowned again and willed the rainbow liquid to dissipate; it fizzled and then evaporated off the glass like it'd never been there.

"I was worried for a second that I wouldn't be able to do that... Oh, actually, I can still feel all the shit I left in that apartment hallway too. There we go, all gone.”

Carmine and Eve simultaneously turned to Cassidy with looks of expectant anticipation. She glanced over at them and then rolled her eyes. “Ugh, my shit’s not that cool; look.” She collected a small amount on her hand, and it spread over the entire surface of it. She concentrated for a second, then pulled her gun out and tapped the barrel on the back of her wrist.

It sounded like the barrel was contacting some sort of ceramic or incredibly dense steel. Eve reached across Carmine to poke at it, and she found that it was incredibly hard. "Whoaaaaa, how tough do you think that stuff is?”

Cassidy shrugged. “All I know is that I can do this over my whole body and that it can do stuff like this.”

The liquid rainbow on her hand extended away from her fingertips in a sharp spike.

"Ok, that's pretty badass. Can you do it remotely like I can?”

Cassidy extracted a bullet from her gun and coated it before tossing it to the floor. The rainbow sheen remained swirling and fixed in place until Cassidy picked it back up.

"It looks like it. So I suppose that means I can fire extra-hard bullets. She twirled her finger in the air to mock her excited tone.

Eve frowned again. “Yeah, but you can also coat your arm mods and everything else you wear to be extra tough too; you'll be like a walking tank.”

Cassidy perked up at her observation and grinned. “That just means you'll have a harder time shooting me in the back after I land, Michael.”

Carmine clapped the back of her head, and she yipped, “You need to drop that; Michael will do what he likes; hell, he might even take both of you if he feels charitable. Just shut your gob and focus on what needs doing. Jasper isn't going to be an easy sell by the sounds of things, and if we've got any hope in hell of getting this shit done, we'll need her.” Chastised, Cassidy went back to staring out the window.

“You're right, thanks, babe.” Eve leaned over and kissed Carmine on the cheek while weaving her fingers between Carmine's. “I think probably our best bet is to just lay it all out on the table and have Jasper decide what she wants to do. She's an incredibly smart woman, despite her vindictive cruelty, so I think she'll see the writing on the wall. Ultimately, she's either with us or against us, and if that means starting a fight, well, at least we'll be armed and ready.”

“Hopefully it won't come to that; who knows, maybe she's pieced enough together already to have an idea of what's up. Maybe she'll be on board with our goal."

Carmine's speculation helped to ease some of the tension building back up in Eve's shoulders but then she grimaced, thinking back to her time spent being Jasper's pussybitch. “Yeah, we'll see." Eve squeezed Carmine's hand, and they fell into a peaceful silence.

10 minutes later, they rolled up to the entrance of Corantel. Carmine directed the Percheron to find parking, and it pulled away as they stepped up to the entrance. A rather imperious-looking white boi greeted them as though they were royalty, and Eve spit in its face. “We're here for Jasper; take us in, cunt.” The white boi smiled weakly and thanked Eve for her spit, which only served to rile her up more.

She briefly considered just having Cassidy gut the useless waste of air, but the logical part of her brain told her that would only cause more headaches than it was worth. Its time to come, sooner than later. The restaurant was on the upper end of fancy; a faux-brickwork facade gave it an ancient aesthetic that Eve wasn't accustomed to. Wrought iron lanterns hung from the awning to illuminate the entranceway, and the deep-yellow LED lights flickered to help mimic flame light.

The interior was nothing but a long rectangular room, brightly lit by the same LEDs as outside. Murals and canvas paintings hung from the walls, depicting brief snapshots of the bloody conflict that was the Great Race War. The paintings were exclusively glorifying the victories and heroics of Black Battleground Legends, many of whom stood atop, or in the foreground of, piles of white corpses. Eve felt her heart lift with the heraldry of Black Excellence; these giants had paved the way to a brighter future, cleaner power, better healthcare, and the subjugation of the world's largest blight.

Rich velvet draped the windows to the street; numerous wall hangings and other acoustic dampers were strategically placed throughout the space to help keep the din to a minimum. Mahogany and oak made up just about every furnishing in the building, and the smell of frothed wine and musked cheese hung heavy in the air. As they stepped past the first few tables, Jasper came into view at the back of the dining room. She beckoned Eve with a finger, and Eve gritted her teeth.

"Your table, mistress..." The whiteboi bowed low as it gestured to Jasper's booth.

Eve cleared her throat, collecting as much phlegm as she could before spitting directly into the greeters face once more, “Die in a fucking fire.''

The whiteboi thanked her profusely and then quickly strode back to the door, doing its best to hold back tears. Turning to regard Jasper, Eve slid into the bench across from her, followed by Carmine and then Cassidy.

Jasper swirled her wine as she looked over the three companions, spending the most time on Cassidy. “I must say, you lot do make for quite the imposing force. The last reports I had didn't include your fiery-looking friend here.” She took a swig of the wine and then set the glass down on a doily-covered coaster. “Now, before you ruin the moment by speaking, I have to say it's incredibly good to see you once more, my sweet. I missed that slightly insane look in your eyes, among other things..."

Eve could feel Carmine tense up, and she put a reassuring hand on her thigh. “Yes, well, you'll forgive me if the sentiment isn't mutual.” Jasper smiled at that and leaned back in her seat, shooting a glance back toward the entrance of the restaurant. Eve followed the look to see several heavily armed Black men take up positions on the opposite side of the street.

“I'm sorry to hear that... I'd rather hope we might spend some time getting reacquainted later, but I suppose that particular flame has faded from your heart."

Eve shifted uncomfortably before responding, “Cut the shit, Jasper; I'm not here to throw myself between your legs. Some fucked up shit is going down, and we need to...” Eve was cut off by Jasper's scoffing laughter.

“Oh, my dear, sweet Eve! Who's this ‘we’ you mention? You didn't honestly think that you could woo me into your service without offering something in return, did you? That simply telling me about whatever this is about would be enough? No, no, no, that simply won't do at all! You see… I've been approached by some very interesting sorts tonight, and they've made quite the promise to me for my services in turning you over to them.”

It felt like Jasper had slapped Eve across the face with her words. She rocked back in the bench seat, bewildered. "Jasper, you didn't?"

She grinned widely before continuing, “Oh yesssss, my darling! I have! This silly little cult you've managed to stumble across has been very eager to... ‘bring you into the fold’, I believe is what they said. And my, did they ever back up their words! You would not believe the sum of money they laid at my feet to bring you to them on a silver platter.”

Eve looked back at the entrance to see more of Jasper's forces step into view. “God damnit, Jasper, this cult isn't what you think. You've been tricked, you've been misled, you-”

Jasper spoke over Eve once again: “I've been paid very well to do a job, something a hunter like you should know all about. I have never once questioned my place in the Guild, Eve, and if you think this piddly little cult will distract me from my goals, then you are very sorely mistaken.”

Eve clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "Jasper, I am trying to fucking save you. The second you turn us over to them, they will bring a fucking torch to everything you own. I guarantee they already have agents posted at your home, maybe even inside it. This cult is going to destroy Helion and everyone in it in an attempt to bring back their shitty fucking God! But there's another way. Jasper, Cassidy, and I have figured out a way to do this right. Please, I'm begging you, at least hear us out.”

A look of conflict flashed across Jasper's face. There was doubt there, likely some suspicion she'd already held for the cult and their activities. “Bullshit, they're nothing but a band of rag-tag faggots looking for some actual purpose in their lives. They helplessly threw their money at me because they're too fucking incompetent to do anything themselves, that's all.”

Eve shook her head and said, “No, Jasper, they've got friends in high places; they know what they're doing because they aren't just whitebois; there are real men invested in this cult. It's dangerous. Carmine, show her.”

Carmine looked over at Eve in confusion, “Huh? Show her what?”

Eve looked to the ceiling in a silent prayer, “Her fucking house is getting ransacked by the cult. They went through mine fast enough; they should be digging through hers about now.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh, right, sorry... Let me just... there we are! Oh shit! Look at that.”

Carmine sent the request to Jasper's messages, and Jasper looked between the two of them before accepting. Eve wasn't sure what she was being shown, but by the widening of her eyes and the look of indignant rage that filled her face, she could tell it was bad.

“My. Fucking. CLOSET?! And that one—what is it doing with my bed sheets? Where are its pants? Oh, fuck me! NO! Get away from that! AHHHHHHHH!” She looked back up as the feed cut off, horror, confusion, rage, and impotent denial all evident on her face. “Those fucking back-stabbing, worthless fucking walking CORPSES! I'm going to find every last one of those wretched little pindicks and personally saw off their fucking limbs with a dull knife. I SWEAR TO FUCK!”

Eve, Carmine, and Cassidy all watched in amazement as the immaculately put-together Jasper began to come undone. “Jasper we-”

Jasper snapped at Eve before she could start, “SHUT UP, just shut the fuck up. I'm this close to fucking salting the earth you've walked on, you bitch. How do I know you aren't in this with them? Hmmm? How did you manage to get security footage from my fucking home? You're going to explain this in ten words or less, and if you don't, I'm burying you in a coffin full of whiteboi clits, got it?”

Eve swallowed and looked over at Carmine. She shrugged while Cassidy simply picked at her nails, supremely uninterested in the outcome of this situation. “Carmine is a cracked AI in an Android body.”

Jasper squinted her eyes at Eve. “Are you fucking with me? You're walking around with a cracked AI? If that thing goes rogue, do you know how fucked we would be?”

Eve sighed and knitted her fingers together on the table.

“Jasper, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're pretty fucked as it is. Carmine isn't the poison you need to wonder about here; it's the cult; hell, it's the guild. I am extending an olive branch to you here. I want to help you. I want you to help us. We need to stop these fucks before they can sink their teeth into Helion any deeper than they already have. I'm going to direct my Percheron to the back of the restaurant, and we're going to exit through the kitchen. If you want to at least hear us out, then please join us.”

Jasper crossed her arms and huffed, “And if I don't?”

Eve nodded to Cassidy and Carmine, and they slid out of the booth. “If you don't, well, assuming the cult doesn't eventually hunt you down like a dog, please stay out of our way. I don't want you to be my enemy; I don't want to have to turn my wrath upon you, but I will.”

Eve let a single rainbow drop fall from the tip of her finger and into Jasper's glass of wine. She willed for her power to activate, and the wine was replaced with a dozen marbles of varying sizes.

"Wha- how did you do that?” Jasper was entirely caught off guard by the magic trick she'd witnessed.

“Come with us, and you'll learn all about it, I promise. We'll wait for two minutes, and if you aren't out by then, we'll assume you've sided with the cult. See you soon, Jasper.”

Eve led Carmine and Cassidy out through the staff entrance, pushing aside serving whelps as they passed. “Shoulda fuckin’ killed her, you know? If she saddles up to the cult now, we're fucked for real.”

Eve shook her head and said, “No, she won't go to them. The cult has lost Jasper, even if she won't admit it to us. If I know her at all, even a little, she'll either join us or wage her own war against them. I'm not sure why the cult chose to double-cross her the way they did, but it ended up working to our advantage.”

They stepped through the rear entrance to find the Percheron waiting. The rain had started to sprinkle down lightly as the first hints of the day began to color the heavy clouds lining the horizon. "C'mon, Jasper, don't make me have to fight you, too.” Cassidy and Carmine climbed into the car, but Eve remained standing, waiting for the portly Hunter to come through the door after them.

“Wait, is that... do you guys hear-" Gunshots rang out from inside the restaurant, and Eve instinctively pulled her Deckland into a firing stance. The shots were muffled by the building but seemed to be rapidly advancing on the door. “Oh shit, get ready girls, we're making a hell of a getaway!”

The door flung open, and Jasper dove into the open side of the Percheron. Eve parked herself between the cabin and the door, propping herself up with a knee on the handle. “DRIVE, CARMINE!” Two of Jasper's thugs stumbled through the door in time to see the car begin accelerating away. They leveled their weapons at the car, and Eve fired.

Two shots landed center-mass, one on each man, their faces contorting in pain. Eve gasped as she realized that she had just shot two Black men. “They were wearing body armor. They had mil-spec body armor. It stopped my rounds. They aren't dead. You didn't kill them. They aren't dead. You missed their vitals, and they're fine. It was you or them, and they're going to be fine.”

The thoughts ran through her head like a mantra, desperately trying to dissociate her from the actions she'd just taken. The car reached the end of the alley, and Eve slid into the cabin and closed the door. Jasper lay across the open floor, panting and groaning as her body ejected a bullet from a rather nasty-looking wound on her shoulder.

"Jasper, you good?” The woman gathered enough strength to flip Eve off before returning to clutching her still-bleeding arm. “Ok, well, fuck you too, I guess. Carmine, try to dodge any tails we might have picked up. We'll head in the opposite direction of the treatment facility for a while before circling back under your camouflage. Gonna need the element of surprise for this one.”

Carmine nodded, and they began their evasive routing. “Eve, they hit her with a smart-round; chuck it.” Eve nabbed the bullet and hurled it out the window as they screeched around a corner. "Ahhhh, fuck, two cars had a visual on us; we probably won't be able to shake them without intervention.”

Eve bit her lip and nodded at Cassidy, who took up a position in the opposite window.

“Hope those shitty town cars don't have bulletproof tires." A hail of gunfire rattled off of the trunk and sent cracks racing along the rear window as the pursuant cars sped down the street after them. Eve steadied her breath and squeezed off two shots from her rifle, one glancing off of the roadway and into the windshield of a pedestrian vehicle. It veered wildly before slamming into a lamppost. “Fuck!” And then she remembered that she didn't need to be as accurate as she was before.

“Cas, time to show them our colors!” Eve fed her power into the rifle and then the bullets in the magazine. “Please work, please work, please work." The first bullet slammed into the hood of the car, immediately transforming it into a swarm of angry butterflies. Her second and third shots turned the windshield into water and the driver's seat into a pile of very confused trout. The car swerved as the driver lost grip on the wheel and fell back into the vehicle.

It spun wildly into the storefront of a small African bridal boutique, and Eve turned her sights onto the second car. Cassidy let off one shot, and the bullet passed through the grill, through the dash, through the driver's abdomen, and then through the battery array. Even then, the bullet didn't stop; it carried on through the batteries, shredding them like newspaper before exiting the rear of the car and continuing down the street to impact the side of the other crashed pursuit vehicle.

The lead car sputtered and then died as it lost cohesive voltage, coming to a dead stop in the middle of the road. The passenger got out and began taking pockshots at the Percheron, but Eve and the girls were making ground quickly before Carmine tucked down another street. “Is that it, for now, Carmine?” Carmine thought for a moment before confirming their getaway. Eve slumped into the bench seat and dug around in her pockets for another cigarette. “Jasper, I ain't going to say I told you so.”

The woman grunted as she worked herself into a semi-seated position against the wall of the car. “They tried to abduct me! My goddamn entourage tried to fucking abduct me! Ungrateful vermin. After everything I've done for them and all the opportunities I provided to them, they sell me out to some backwater, inbred, useless fucking trash. I should have fucking seen this coming, working with fucking Whitebois. Ugh.”

She took out a small pen vape and hit it, inhaling deeply. “Whatever, fine, fuck you—I'm in. This better be damn well worth it because now I have to go through the trouble of rebuilding my network from the ground up. Uggghhhhhh fuuuuuuuck-I hate whitebois so fucking muuuuuuch.” She slammed the back of her head into the frame strut as she took another angry hit from her vape.

Watching Jasper devolve into this whiny, indignant brat pleased Eve to no end. The usual maturity and poise were all but forgotten in the heat of her disgruntled anger.

“Are you done being a bitch?”

Jasper looked up at Eve and rolled her eyes. “Fuck you. Gonna explain what's going on now, or just sit there and berate me?”

Eve grinned and folded her arms across her chest. “Try to focus, 'cause this is a long one.”

Jasper's reaction to the tale was more skeptical than Cassidy's had been, but when both Eve and Cassidy made a display of their colors, that skepticism all but vanished. “And you're saying... I've got one of those things inside me as well?”

Eve nodded, “likely from some other God than the ones we got. We're still not too sure which God the cult is trying to resurrect, but with the way they're going about it, I don't think that matters. The second they succeed, Helion is done and dusted.”

“And you think your little parasite is going to produce a different outcome?”

Eve rocked her head side to side. “Our children won't be fully grown when we birth them; if the cult manages to resurrect their God, odds are good it'll be in a state more capable of wreaking havoc. We'll have a chance to raise our children, guide them, teach them, and hopefully avoid the fucking apocalypse.”

Jasper seemed fairly disquieted by the fact that she was carrying the God Seed within her. “I suppose now that I know all this, there isn't any getting out of it, is there?”

Eve shook her head. “The cult is obviously onto you, so if you decide to go your own way, it'll be you against them. And if we part ways, well, you'll forgive us for not being able to trust you after that.”

Jasper fiddled with her vape. “Why'd you call me? I'm not cut out for shit like this. You could have contacted Amber or Trinity; hell, even Felicity would have been a better pick than me, and she's only got one real arm. Why'd you drag me into your shitfit?" She looked up at Eve, searching her face for any hint of deception.

Eve sighed and looked at the floor. “Because, despite everything you put me through, I genuinely loved you. I never respected the way you went about our job, but I couldn't deny its efficacy. You know how to work with your clients and allies to best suit your needs, and you're not above terminating white filth when it's necessary. I picked you because you would make a powerful ally and because I had hoped we could see eye to eye on what needed to be done.”

Jasper frowned. “Why can't I tell if you're bullshitting me? I mean, it's very obviously bullshit. Loved me? No one fucking loves me, Eve. They worship me, they respect me, they serve me, and they pretend to like me. But no one loves me. Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe that? After I abused you? Marked you? Bullshit.”

Eve looked up from the floor, staring directly into Jasper's eyes. “I swear to you, my Black God, that I'm not bullshitting you. Those brief moments we spent with each other meant more to me than I even realized. But things are clearer to me now, having met Carmine.” Eve squeezed her thigh as she leaned in to rest her head on her shoulder.

“You filled a void I'd been missing for a long time, one that I'd been trying to fill with Black men and other women. Just because you didn't feel anything like that towards me doesn't mean I couldn't feel it towards you. I lived off your essence while we were together and hung on to your every word as though it were a commandment. In those brief, passionate days, you were the reason I carried on. I thank you for that, and I tell you again, this is not bullshit.”

Jasper almost looked offended, not knowing how to process the confession or its emotional impact. "Why didn't you say anything? You never… you never even brought it up.”

Eve chuckled softly at that. “I was terrified of you, Jasper. What would you do to me or not do to me if you learned how I felt? For all I knew back then, you'd have just killed me, and I probably would have let you, thats how fucked up I was about you.”

Jasper swallowed back the tears forming in her eyes. “You bitch! This is classic manipulation! You and your fuckin’ sweet talk... Goddamnit." Jasper scrunched up her face, trying not to openly cry in front of the three women. Eve remained silent and allowed Jasper the dignity of fighting through her emotions without interference. Anything she could say would only cause her more distress and embarrassment and potentially cost her the relationship.

Eventually, Carmine notified Eve that they were coming close to the treatment facility, and to get ready, she nodded and addressed Jasper. “Let's make a difference, Jasper, together."

Jasper rubbed her eyes and looked up at Eve. “Alright, what have I got to do?”

Eve extended a hand, and Jasper took it. “First, you need to get the fuck out of my car, 'cause I have no clue what's going to happen for this next part.”

They stepped out into the rain and took shelter under some ductwork extending from the wall of the alley. "Next, we need to make a blood oath, and then... well, you essentially just ride it out until it's over.”

Jasper resumed her skeptical look. “By ‘it’ I'm assuming you mean the awakening... Does it hurt?”

Eve waffled her hand. "Ehhhhhhh, it's kind of hard to describe, but it'll be over before you know it.”

Unimpressed, Jasper grumbled before reaching out a hand and saying, “Get on with it. We're trying to save the city, right? God, I hope I don't regret this.”

With that, Cassidy stepped up and cleanly slit both of their wrists in the manner Carmine had back at Cassidy's house. Clasping Jasper's hand, Eve began to feel the trickle of power seep from her arm, and then the process took hold. This time Eve opened herself to it, accepted it, and let the raging fires of her awakened power suffuse her.

She slammed to one knee as strength poured out of her body and into Jasper. Distantly, she could hear Cassidy and Carmine reacting to her fall, but everything was crawling to a stop. Individual raindrops hung in the air like bubbles, and Eve could see Cassidy and Carmine reflected in each, thousands of reflections of the two racing towards her. And then it all went black.

Eve was thrust into a lightless void, the sheer volume of blackness threatening to disconnect her from her awareness. But then she felt the fingers; spider-like spindles of hardened flesh crept down her spine, and she whirled only to confront nothing. Clicking echoed around her, and for the barest of moments, she thought she could just make out an emaciated form before her.

Its head was bowed as though asleep, blood-soaked bandages wrapped around its grotesque skull and trailing down its bony shoulders. Its ribs jutted inhumanly out of its deeply ridged spine. Its arms were limp at its side, dangling down to its ankles, where six long claws swept back up towards its thighs.

Eve was reduced to an animal in its presence, and every human aspect of her psyche vanished before its hideous form. The deep, snarling, lizard-like portion of her mind railed against all common sense to get her to flee, to run. A frothing, jittering, anxiety-laced fear gripped her so tightly that she couldn't even scream. And then the creature began to unfurl, its arms stretching out and fingers fanning in wide, graceful arcs as it raised its head towards her.

Something within her spoke without words. It begged her not to look, not to breathe, and not to move. It begged her to do everything she could to just shut the thing out of her mind. And then it spoke—not with the voice of a creature but of her mother. She recognized the sound immediately, and it took every ounce of focus she had to not look up at it. “Eve? Eve, is that you? Oh Eve, baby, you've grown so tall! So tall… I've missed you, my darling Eve.”

The voice shredded her heart; it hollowed out her ears until she could feel the burning tears falling from her eyes and the snot trailing down her chin. She blubbered incoherently as she continued to do everything she could to ignore its presence. “Eve I've been so lost and lonely; it's cold here, Eve. Mommy misses you, baby. Please talk to me. I beg you, please.”

The silent voice within herself shrieked at her to ignore it, avoid it, or do anything other than look at it, or they were doomed. Worse than doomed, they would be devoured piece by piece until nothing was left but the memory of her. “It's not my mother; it's not my mother; it's not my mother; it's not my mother; it's not my mother; it's not my mother.” Eve, let the mantra run endlessly. She focused single mindedly on maintaining her grip on sanity.

“I'm so sorry, my love. For leaving you the way I did, leaving you alone on the streets. I wish we could have had more time together. I wish I could have been there to see you grow up. Please, my baby, please at least let me see you one last time.” Eve's grip was failing; each word beat her mind like a drum, and ripples of horrid power oozed through them as the skittering and clawing on the inside of her skull intensified.

The fetid stink of rot and blood crept up her nose as the creature circled behind her. A cold, clammy sweat broke out across her brow and neck as she breathed. Vicious, ragged, wheezing gasps assaulted her ears before the sweet melodic tones of her mother resumed. “Your father did this to us. It's his fault, all his fault. If only I'd been better for you; if only I'd been smarter than to accept him. Maybe we could have been close; maybe we could have lived together. Free of this pain...

Her mother's tone was becoming unsteady, upset by the words and by Eve's continued denial of their existence. “Why won't you look at me? Why aren't you listening? Do you not Ļ̶̦̱̬̊ŏ̸͎̯̫͍v̵̮̣̖̆̑è̸͖̏̀ me? Do you hate me because I've failed you? I'm so S̶͙͔͓̉́̍ō̵͍̙͖r̶̮̝̥̖̓̇́̀ṟ̵͚̲̔y̶̹͌͛́̕ , my sweetness. Please just look at me. I thought you loved me.” Odd hitching caught its words, and the dizzying pain of mourning relinquished slightly.

“No, no, no! It's not T̸i̵m̸e̶ yet! Please! I still have time! L̴͈̯̈́o̴̝̎̈́o̶̜̗̊k̴͇̱̅̕ at me, EVE! Before I go again, before I'm lost! Ļ̶̳̦̹͈͙̾͛́͊̑͗́̚Ö̶̞͖̮̩͚̣̩̩́̊̎̓̾͘Ơ̷̩̱͔͍̣̱̲̫͚͈̏̑̀̃̕͠͝ͅK̸͚͎̜̥̱̜͇̬̅͛̀̊ ̷̛̰̥̬̬͌̒̎̂̔̏A̸̜̟̣͑̒̌̀͑Ţ̸͖̳̤̣͖̲̭̦̳̣͔̮͆̾́̍́̓̉͝ ̴̯͓̗̦̜͈̺̺̫̪͔̠̞̆̿̓̅̚M̷̢̱͙̍̍̍̀͑̍̒̾͘͘͜E̸͉̤̞̤͋́͛̕!”


And then it was gone. Everything was gone, and Eve floated through the pitch-black space alone. The buzzing and gnawing in her mind had fallen silent; the voice screaming at her from within had gone still, and she was left to float alone with her thoughts. That hadn't been The Mournful God, or at least, not entirely; she could feel aspects of it in the creature: regret, sadness, loss, and, of course, mourning. But the way it desperately wanted her to look at it—the bandages around its head—it didn't feel right.

Something had gone wrong with her and Jasper's oath; too much of herself had been poured into the bond and Jasper's unborn child. Was that what this was? A limbo between the two parent gods? Had that been a horrendous chimera between the two? A light sparked to life in the darkness before vanishing. Like a guttering flame attempting to establish itself. It reminded Eve of misfiring neurons.

More lights flickered, then more and more, until the darkness was awash with them, enveloping her in a static hiss of light and dark. Sparks flared into existence and then faded. Was this what being resuscitated feels like? Were the girls trying to bring her back from death? She reached out and snatched a spark from the air, and images began to play across her eyes. Memories she couldn't quite place.

She grabbed another, and more images flooded her vision. She caught the mousy brown hair of a young version of her mother. Were these her memories? If they were fading, then did that mean she was losing them? Was she slowly going brain-dead? Something thumped her chest, and she wheezed. Wet trickles ran down her cheeks. Tears? They were cold. Another thump, and she curled in on herself. It hurt so badly. Her pants clung to her legs, soaked. When did she sweat that much?

Another thump, and she screamed in agony. Rain pelted her face, and the rough asphalt beneath her caught against her nails as she clawed the ground. She felt the bile rising from her stomach and heaved it up across the ground in front of her. Tucking her head under her, she stared down into an oil-slicked puddle. One of her eyes had a ruptured blood vessel and was almost entirely red.

She heaved again but only came up with spittle as she panted for breath. “She's alive! Oh my fucking God, she's alive!”

Cassidy? The gruff husk in the voice meant it had to be Cassidy.

“Eve! Eve, can you hear me? Look at me; hey, come on.” Eve instinctively pulled away from Carmine's hands, still fearing what would happen if she looked at the source of the voice of a loved one. “Eve, it's me; it's Carmine; you're ok; everything is ok now.”

Carmine's arms wrapped around her and cradled her. Eve flung her arms around Carmine's shoulders and squeezed. “Whoa, easy. I got you; you're good. Hey, hey, hey, I got you.”

The reassuring tone sapped the energy out of Eve, and she sank into Carmine's embrace before remembering Jasper.

“Wherekdirirn.” Eve felt her tongue slide gracelessly against her teeth as she slurred her speech.

“Jasper is fine; she's here. Say hi, Jasper.”

There was a soft noise, like a worried hum, before Jasper spoke. “Holy shit, you understood that? Hi, yeah, I'm here. Thanks for that, by the way. I'm fuckin’ blind now, you bitch.”

Eve slowly swiveled her head away from Carmine's chest to make tentative eye contact. The busty blonde peered down at her with a broad smile and said, “Hey.”

Eve looked over at Cassidy, who stood under the duct, puffing on a cigarette. “Sup, how was dying? Can't say I've ever done that!”

Then Eve looked over at Jasper and saw her eyes. “Y-your… eyes?”

Jasper clicked her tongue and looked away, brushing her long, thick hair over her forehead. “Yeah, my fucking eyes... all thanks to this little ‘ritual’ you put me through, you dumb bitch. Ugh, it's fine though... I know how to fix this, sort of.” Jasper's eyes had been replaced by two swirling orbs of color. They shone dimly in the dark alley, casting a soft rainbow light across the walls and ground.

"I'm alright now; I'll get up; thanks, Carmine.” Eve kissed her lover and then rose to her feet. “I'm glad you aren't dead.”

Jasper scoffed, “Is that right? Well, I'm mildly disappointed you aren't... ‘hard to explain’ my ass. I suppose you forgot to mention the near-death experience because of you. What? Forgot?”

Eve didn't know how to respond to that, so she said nothing. “Yeah, I thought as much. Last time I took a blood oath with you... in any case, I've got a rough idea of how to use my color, and it'll solve my sight problem; we just need to find some whitebois for me to make use of. Are you up for that? Or do you think they might be a little too much for you now? What with having died and all?"

The smoky drawl was back in her voice, and it put Eve at ease, knowing Jasper wasn't truly angry with her over the incident. It put a small smile back on her lips. “A few white bois wouldn't be an issue even if I were still dead. Let's do this.” They set out down the alley, attempting to navigate closer to the treatment facility without getting too close to any of the main roads. Maintaining their surprise would make breaking into the compound much easier.

Carmine explained that Eve had fallen asleep almost as soon as her knee hit the ground. They weren't too worried about it until she started having seizures and her heart stopped. Jasper had made it through the ordeal relatively unscathed, minus the loss of her eyes, which she was quick to add “felt like something reached in and plucked them out.” Eve explained her experience in the void, but no matter how she phrased it, she couldn't convey the gravity of the encounter.

“It sounds like ol' Jasper here got stuck with The Blind God's child. What do you think, Jas? Does the BLIND God fit the bill?"

Jasper swung at Cassidy and missed by a comical margin. Carmine jumped in and confirmed that was the most likely scenario. Naturally, Cassidy spent the next few minutes gloating over her genius, much to Jasper's displeasure.

It didn't take them long to come across another band of ownerless whitebois. Close to 20 of them milled around a small encampment nestled in the corner of a turn in the alley. They'd erected tents and lean-tos against the walls of the buildings, using the ducting as makeshift anchor points. A quick survey of the group indicated they had a leader.

As a quirk of their spineless disposition, anytime a group of three or more whitebois gathered, a pecking order was established among them. Where members of the Black race could effortlessly and efficiently form a cooperative diplomacy, white bois struggled and fought like barnyard chickens. They were typically incapable of forming any sort of cohesive team without a designated leader.

This was one of the reasons why whites had been stripped of their rights and were generally regarded as chattel. In this case, an oddly masculine-looking whiteboi had established its dominance over the others and now proudly sat on a discarded reclining chair near the fire. Eve wondered how this whiteboi got its unnatural physique.

‘The Old Stock' was usually reserved for pit fighters and security bitches. Remnants of a bygone era where humans had been more closely aligned with one another in terms of physique. Traces of it could still sometimes be seen in Whitebois, though it was rare and prohibitively expensive. How this whiteboi had come to be ownerless would have warranted thorough questioning had Eve come across it even just yesterday.

As things were, though, Eve just wanted it dead. A filthy, malnourished twink settled itself between the leader's legs and began working its short, pathetic, limp dicklette with its mouth.

“Are you fucking seeing that? I mean, I've heard about it, but I didn't think it fucking happened in the wild. That thing is getting an erection? Can we call it that? Jesus, I'm gonna to fucking puke.”

Cassidy turned away from the sight and dry-heaved into the alley. Eve had already seen her share of disgusting whiteboi behavior tonight and found herself numb to it. Jasper, well, Jasper was fortunate enough to not be capable of seeing it at all. “I just need their bodies; they don't need to be alive for this.”

Eve turned to Jasper and asked, “What exactly are you going to do with their bodies?”

Jasper simply replied, “Use them.”

Eve could sense there wasn't much else she was going to get from Jasper and took a step toward the group. Jasper cleared her throat and made an exception: “They do need to be whole, though. No missing limbs, no decapitated heads; bullet wounds are fine; just leave them intact.”

Eve wasn't sure what to make of that, but some feeble whitebois weren't going to be an issue, even if there were a bunch of them. “I'll take the leader; you two start working on the runts. I want to enjoy this a bit.”

Carmine and Cassidy nodded as they stepped into the light of the whitebois barrel fire behind Eve. “Which one of you dickless faggots is the leader here? You?” Eve pointed to the half-lidded slut sitting in the recliner. Its eyes slid open fractionally as it assessed Eve.

“You one of them, Hunter cunts? Yeah, yeah, you look like a Guild bitch. Did I fuckin’ tell you to stop? Keep suckin’!” The scrawny leader slapped the slut between its legs across the back of its head, and the bitch whimpered. “Ran into another one of you dykes a few day’s ago. We jumped her ass and fuckin' lynched her, right over there.”

The bitch pointed to a spot somewhere behind Eve but she didn't turn to look. "Yeah, should've heard the way she fuckin’ cussed us out, sayin’ shit like she was going to kill us when she got free, that her partner would find her and kill us... didn't mean much once we broke her jaw.”

Eve clenched her fist as she stepped forward.

"Ahhhh, struck a nerve, huh?” The whiteboi stood, shoving the little twink between its legs back and to the side. Its useless clit dangled weakly between its legs; Eve judged it to be just shy of two inches fully erect, barely worth mentioning or even wasting time considering. “Once we fixed that sluts jaw, we all took turns usin’ her, see. After a while, all that rage and pain turned into fear and apologies. He begged us, you know? She begged for her life; can you believe that?”

The whiteboi stepped confidently around the barrel fire towards Eve. “Yeah, see, but we didn't stop, you know? And eventually, all that begging turned into begging to die. Musta been, like, twenty hours or so of us fuckin’ up her body, and that bitch started promising us everything and anything if we'd just kill her.”

Eve clenched her jaw. “Doug over there ended up fucking her to death with that pipe. Hey, Doug, gimme that.” Another filthy whiteboi flung an iron pipe over to the leader, who caught it and gave it a few experimental swings.

“Think it's still got some of her small intestines on it, see? Right… THERE!” It made a lunge for Eve, swinging in a wide arc towards her head. Eve stepped back and avoided the blow as it sailed through the air in front of her nose. The whiteboi didn't lose its balance and pressed the attack with surprising deftness. It had accumulated some level of experience fighting on the streets, likely bolstered by its unusual constitution.

Eve stepped to the side, and the pipe whistled down beside her arm before sharply changing its approach angle in an attempt to bludgeon her knee. Unfortunately for the whiteboi, Eve's body had been heavily modified, and so, even with its extensive experience and abnormal physique, she outclassed its combat potential by leagues. Coupled with its lack of surprise or support, Eve was about to dismantle this disgusting failure of a subhuman animal.

She caught the pipe on her shin, stopping it dead and forcing the whiteboi to unexpectedly brace itself; her fist slammed into its ribs as it tried to pull away, and the combined force sent it stumbling back with a pained look on its face. "Hah, that's all you—ugh, that's all you got?"

Eve shook her head and cracked her knuckles. “I'm going to piss on your broken face after smashing every last tooth out of your skull.”

The whiteboi grinned and readied its pipe again. "We killed one hunter; what's another?” It rushed at her again, failing to learn from its first blitz. Eve snapped out a kick, slamming her heel into the whitebois kneecap as its leg fully extended on the ground. There was a satisfying crunch as the bones separated in the joint and the whiteboi screamed. It shuffled back, taking its weight off the leg and flailing the pipe to maintain distance.

“MY FUCKING LEEEEGGGGGGGG AHHHHH FUCK. DOUG, FUCKING GET THIS BITCH!”

Eve smirked as the timid twink that had tossed the pipe visibly recoiled from the encounter. “Uh oh… It looks like Doug might be just a tiny bit smarter than you. Doug, I'll let you kiss my boot if you rip this faggots dick off.”

The terrified twink swung its head between the leader and Eve, ultimately recognizing who the winning team would be. It made a mad dash for the leader.

Eve clapped in delight. “Go, Doug! You get that loser! Get it!”

Naturally, the leader turned and cracked Doug across the temple with the pipe. The pathetic wimp crumpled to the ground with a thud as the leader turned back to face Eve. But Eve was already on it; she thrust her knee up between its legs so viciously that the whelp came off the ground over a foot. She could feel its external ovaries explode with the contact.

It groaned as the impact carried it straight up, its hands instinctively releasing the pipe and then moving to block any further damage to the afflicted area. Eve thought about castrating the creature but remembered Jasper's words before entering the fight as it fell to its knees. Instead, she grabbed a fistful of its hair and cranked its head back so it could look into her eyes.

“I'm not going to let you pass out; I want you to feel every single second of what's about to happen to you. I want the last few minutes of your short, useless, worthless, disgusting life to be the most catastrophically agonizing minutes you've ever experienced. So fucking smile.”

The whiteboi mumbled something, probably some half-hearted attempt to beg for its life, before Eve began to pummel its face. She beat on its face until every front tooth it had was dislodged or broken. Anytime it passed out, she would step on its broken sack of filth to jolt it back awake before continuing. Finally, once it was unrecognizable between the blood and the swelling, she flung its head back to impact the asphalt and unzipped her pants. Emptying her bladder all over its broken and discolored face almost brought her to climax. All around her were the sounds of dying whitebois, and it all served to excite her in a way nothing else could. “How'd we… ngghh fuck… How'd we make out, girls?”

Carmine withdrew a finger from the ear hole of a whiteboi desperately clinging to her arm. Blood trickled out of the hole along with some pinkish-grey matter, and she allowed the faggot to drop to the alley, twitching and spasming as its scrambled brain attempted to send nonsensical signals to its body. “We're good; minimal body damage and no shots fired; that was super fucking hot!”

“Cassidy, stop playing with it; we aren't keeping any of them.” Cassidy looked up from the whiteboi who was currently choking on the barrel of her gun. Both of its arms had been broken, and she had a firm grip around its caged clit and balls.

"Oh, fucking ewww! Why are you touching it like that? I know you have, like, a ‘thing’ for Whitebois, but fuck sake, Cas! That's disgusting!” Carmine scrunched up her face as Cassidy shrugged.

“Sorry, force of habit.”

With a quick motion, she pulled the whitebois clit and ovaries off, blood geysered from its crotch as a severed artery pumped its lifeblood across the ground. The whiteboi passed out instantly, without so much as a sound.

“Oh god, that's so gross! Ew, ew, ew, throw them away! NO! DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE?" Cassidy tossed the genitals towards Carmine, and she shrieked as she dodged them. “EW! EW! EWWW FUCKING EWWWWWWW!” Cassidy fell into a hysterical laughing fit as Jasper gingerly made her way into the alley.

“I assume that means you're done now. I heard a rather cocky-sounding faggot square up with you, Eve; where is it?”

Eve called her over, and Jasper came to kneel next to the whiteboi leader. “Alright, so if I just... do this... and then stare like... oh!”

Jasper leaned over the unconscious leader and pried its eyes open. She stared into them as the color in her eyes began to intensify until a single drop fell from each and onto the leaders. Soon after, the leader blinked as it sat up and felt its body, apparently ******* of the catastrophic damage to its face. “Dif if weirf, waf fif you foo ta this bofy?” It tried to speak through its swollen lips and broken mouth.

Eve looked between the pale loser and jasper. “Jasper, are you in the whitebois body?”

Jasper shook her head, and the white boi turned its head to look up at Eve. “I've essentially hijacked all its senses, except for feeling, since you just finished beating the fuck out of it. I can use its eyes and ears while I puppet it like this.” She stood and swooned for a second. “This is going to take some practice to get used to, seeing myself from a third-person perspective... shiiiiiiit, my eyes are a fuckin’ trip!” The leader shuffled closer to Jasper, and Eve remained on high alert as it entered her personal space.

Eve observed the duo seemingly staring at one another, “So, you're basically in two places at once right now?”

Jasper nodded. “That's pretty much what it's like, yeah.”

Cassidy piped up as she rifled through the pockets of the whiteboi she'd executed, “Can you control more than one like that?”

Jasper nodded again. “Yes, I'll take all these bodies. Let the few that possess weapons keep them so they can be useful to me, please."

Carmine looked around the camp and took stock of the pitiful arrangement. “Not much here for you to make use of... That one had a shiv, and that one over there looks like it had some kind of... club? What is that? A table leg?”

Cassidy looked over to a prone body, "Yeah, that looks like a table leg for sure.”

Jasper sighed, using the leader to look around. “Whatever, it's something. I'll start gathering my hoard, I suppose.” With that, Jasper began wandering around the camp, resurrecting the bodies of the slaughtered white bois.

“Is this how the zombie apocalypse happens? You lose control of your little hoard, and they start roaming the city, chewing on people's heads?" Cassidy shuddered as she watched one of the whitebois crawl to its feet.

“No, once I cut the connection, they just drop like marionettes. Watch." The whiteboi closest to Cassidy crumpled to the ground as though whatever had been holding it up had vanished.

“Huh, and they just, like, follow you around? How does that work?” Carmine poked the fallen whiteboi with a boot.

“I have a general sense of all of them, and they intuit my desires through my color. I can use any one of them as a ‘host’ for my consciousness, which lets me tap into any of the senses they still have. It's a bit difficult to explain, honestly.”

“Nah, I understand it pretty well.” Carmine smiled at the zombie leader that Jasper was using to see the world. “I've got a subordinate A.I slaved to my will as well.” The women carried on gathering anything of value, and Jasper soon had a small clutch of zombified whitebois under her control. For all their bodies had been put through, it appeared as though they moved quite well.

Some sprinted ahead to scout, and others fanned out to cover their rear. If push came to shove, they would make fairly decent cannon fodder for the team if they were ever in need of a distraction or a rapid retreat. “Alright, so here's the scoop.” Carmine formed a small huddle with the other girls. “Eve's tracking drone pinged on Melody Dellenworth approximately one hour ago; any guesses on where she was being taken?”

Cassidy rolled her eyes. “The treatment facility, duh.”

Carmine nodded. “Very good, Cas, Gold Star. Our degenerate friends from the Corona Block were also tracked there, which means the treatment facility must be acting as their main base of operations. Whitebois have never been credited for their smarts, and I highly doubt any black members of the cult have had anything to do with operations beyond bankrolling the endeavor.”

Jasper raised a hand and said, “That's assuming there are any black members. I can't see them lowering themselves to working with a fanatical group of guttercunts.”

Carmine smiled back at that. “Except, one of the most powerful men in the city has been linked to assisting one of the most wealthy whitebois in the city in abducting their shared ******** through black market manipulations. Likely in an attempt to hide the involvement of the cult and give them time to complete whatever culty bullshit they have brewing.”

Jasper lowered her hand and fell silent. "Obviously, as one of the most well-connected hunters in Helion, they would be extra cautious about what information you got, so don't feel bad about missing this. Not to toot my own horn, but if I hadn't been here, Eve likely would have never picked up their trail either. Combining inaccessible security footage and rooting through countless sealed documents in the Guild database is somewhat beyond your capabilities.”

Carmine shook her wrist in a sweeping motion to dismiss the topic. “Anyway, from what I've been able to get from the very limited camera coverage of the treatment facility, there are roughly two hundred whitebois gathered there. Most just seem to be brainless sheep looking for a free ride on the coattails of a moderately powerful cult, but a few of them seem to be a little more established. They aren't well armed, and they don't look well trained either. We should be able to break this cabal up if we hit them fast and from different angles.”

Carmine pinged each of their comments with the breaching data. “Eve, you'll be heading through the east side of the building; this is technically the staff entrance, so foot traffic shouldn't be too heavy. I'll override the security locks by simulating employee credentials at the door terminals as you come to them. Cassidy, you'll be taking the lobby on the south side of the building; it's the most heavily monitored and heavily trafficked, so you'll be going in hot and providing a diversion for the rest of us.”

Cassidy frowned. “Since when did I sign up to be the bullet sponge? Why do I have to take the hardest part of the raid?”

All three of her companions turned to face her and Carmine sighed, "Because... you're the only one of us who's bulletproof... or have you somehow forgotten what your color does? As I said, they aren't well-armed, so it shouldn't be as hard as you're imagining it will be. Just waltz in there and start raising hell; you can handle that much, can't you?”

Cassidy sighed and then smiled. "Yeah, I can get that done, no problem.”

Carmine returned the smile before turning to Jasper, or rather, Jasper's conquered leader, "Jasper, you're on the west; this is part of the tailings yard where the treatment tanks are laid out; for whatever reason the largest number of active guards are posted here, so you're going to be our main assault force. Based on the blueprints for the treatment plant, the elevators and stairs leading to the sublevels are just inside your entrance.”

Jasper quirked an eyebrow at that. “I thought you said the main entrance was where all the cultists were?”

Carmine shook her head. “They're monitoring the entrance more heavily, and there's more traffic because of the people coming and going. The greatest concentration of cultist guards is at the west entrance, which will be our goal. Work your way to the west side of the building from your respective entrances, and we'll proceed to the lower levels from there.”

She looked between the girls and said, “I probably don't need to iterate this, but we're not playing nice-guy here. If it's white, kill it. There are no allies in that building, and the staff cannot operate the facility without noticing the cult presence all around them. None of them are innocent. I'll be coming through their shipping and receiving, which isn't too far from Jasper's door; all you need to do is hold out for me to back you up, and we can secure the path to the lower levels.”

Jasper licked her lips and grinned. “Every dead whiteboi is just another cog in my machine now. Ugh, I spent my time using them like disposable tools, and now they can't even escape me in death; fuck that turns me on!”

Eve smiled. “We'll think of a way to ease that tension once we're done. Get in quick, find Melody Dellenworth, slaughter every piece of shit limp-dick we see, and get out. I like this plan, girls. Ready?”

They all exchanged excited looks before nodding in unison and turning toward the treatment facility. The sun was lurking just under the horizon, threatening

the night with hazy pinks and deep purples that stretched across the clouded skies. In ancient times, a pink sky at daybreak signified trouble approaching. Eve wasn't particularly spiritual, but she desperately hoped the old idiom was nothing more than superstition.