-----

Author's Note: Here's Chapter Eleven, I'm really pumping these things out now. I've had a lot of free time to write lately. This one has the outcome of the earlier cliffhanger and throws another one in at the end. I've been wanting to write this chapter ever since I started writing this story and knew how things were going to go. So enjoy! I'd like to thank djkauf for the wonderful editing and DC Comics for their fantastic characters.

-----

Chapter Eleven:

“Josie, are you still with me?”

The voice woke me up. When I opened my eyes and looked around, at first I saw only darkness. I panicked, not sure where I was or what happened. I snapped up, throwing off an itchy blanket and nearly banging my head on something hanging too low over it. It took me a few seconds to calm down but my heart was still hammering in my chest like a drum. My eyes adjusted to the darkness quick enough. I was lying on a cot; the thing over my head was actually a low hanging wooden shelf. It was kind of bad place for a shelf or maybe a bad one for a bed. I groaned and rubbed the back of my neck. Everything ached, from the bottom of my feet to the tip of my nose. I couldn’t remember the last time I hurt so much.

There was a sigh. “I was worried for a second,” said Khaji, definite relief in her voice. “That thing nearly choked the life out of you.”

I gasped, reaching for my neck. It was still really sore and probably red. I could still feel his hand wrapped around it though, trying desperately to kill me. “What happened?” I croaked, my throat dry and scratchy.

“I’m not sure of all the details but it seems you were attacked. I blame myself. If I hadn’t been resting and had been on full alert, I could have warned you.”

I shook my head; a numb pain throbbed through the back of it. I groaned. It felt like someone hit me in the head with a bat. I rubbed it but it didn’t help much. “It's not your fault, Khaji, it’s mine. I shouldn’t have used the armor so much.”

“It is almost fully charged now. I won’t let anyone get the drop on you like that again.”

I nodded. I slid to the end of the cot, avoiding the shelf. I squinted in the dark, trying to make sense of my surroundings. I saw vague shapes, they looked like stacked boxes. The air was stale and kind of moldy and it was cold. I shivered, grabbed the blanket and pulled it around my half-naked form. Someone took the time to undress me, leaving me in nothing but bra and panties. I could only guess where my clothes were now. Waking up in a strange place, with no clothes and lots of aches is something I don’t recommend. Especially after you’ve just survived a vicious attack on your life.

“How did I get here?”

“I’m not really sure. I came to shortly after that bastard was done choking you. I tried calling out to you but you were already fading. When you blacked out, it was lights out for me too. I could vaguely hear what was going on but I couldn’t see anything. There was a fight though and a few minutes later, someone picked you up and carried you here. You’ve been unconscious for hours, I was afraid you weren’t going to wake.”

I remembered the thing, the one who called himself Bottom Feeder. He was choking me to death and then something happened. I think someone interfered. I can vaguely recall shapes of people but then I blacked out. Maybe they brought me here. I closed my eyes and when I reopened them, the whole room was aglow in blue. Now I could see everything clearly. I was right about the boxes. They were large and wooden, stacked from floor to ceiling. There were a lot of them but on most of them the labels were too faded to read. They looked old, though. I looked around the rest of the room. Everything was covered in dust and things smelled like a basement.

I slipped off the cot, wrapping the blanket around me. There was a narrow looking door directly in front of me. I shuffled toward it, the floor cold on my bare feet. When I got to the door and tried the handle, I found it locked. I tried twisting the handle off but I didn’t have the strength for it. So instead, I banged on it a few times and waited. It didn’t take long for someone to respond. I heard a shuffle and them some running. I stepped back as whoever it was unlocked the door from the outside. When it opened, dim light flooded into the room. I had to step back further and shield my eyes.

“You’re awake finally,” said a voice, vaguely familiar. “We thought we were going to have to dump you in front of the hospital.”

I lowered the hand shielding my eyes and saw a familiar face. It was the girl in black, the one who’d been dogging me for days. “You, what the hell am I doing here?”

“The name’s Probe and you shouldn’t be so nasty to the one who saved your life.”

“You saved my life, why?”

She ignored my question. “You’re lucky I was walking by when I did. I sensed that freak hiding, lying in wait for you. So I ran and got the others. We were a little slow in coming but we got there just in time, I think. You should be grateful; we could have left you to die. Especially after you tore up Scour and Thumper like that.”

I groaned. So Posse saved me. “Why would you save me?”

She ignored me again. “I’ll get you some clothes.”

I groaned. I hated it when people dodged my questions. Probe left and I wandered back into the room, sitting on the cot once again. Probe returned a minute or two later with a pile of clothes in her hands. She walked silently inside and navigated the dark like it was second nature to her. She handed me the clothes them dragged over a nearby box, sitting on it. I looked at the assortment in my hands and groaned. There was no way I was wearing these things.

“I’m sorry about them but we don’t have a huge selection. Most of them are mine but I had to give you a pair of Bonita’s shoes. I’ll turn around so you can get dressed then I need to take you to Damper. He’s got some questions.”

She turned around and I slipped off the blanket. I got to my feet and rifled through the clothes. I wouldn’t be needing the bra and panties so I set those aside. I first thing I held up was a tattered black skirt; it was way too short for my liking. But I slipped it on. Next came a pair of stockings, they were clear with little spiders and webs all over them. Both were clearly from Probe and her gothy wardrobe. I had some problems putting on the stockings, but I managed. When I finally got to the shirt, I groaned. It was bright pink with Princess stenciled across it in sparkling gold letters. I really didn’t want to wear that, but I slowly pulled it over my head. When I got to the shoes, I noticed they were white sandals. I put them without a problem and gave the hem of the skirt a little tug.

“What happened to my clothes?” I asked as Probe turned around.

“They’re trashed. They were covered in mud and crap, trust me, you don’t want them back.”

I nodded and Khaji spoke, annoyed “I could have created clothes for you.”

“I don’t want them to know the extent of your abilities. So you’re going to lie low for now.”

“This one knows I’m here, she’s got a prying eye.”

I looked at Probe and she was doing that creepy staring thing again. It was made even creepier by her sunglasses. Did she ever take them off?

“You ready to go?” I nodded. “Follow me.”

She got off the box and walked through the dark room without a problem again. Could she see in the dark? I followed close behind. After leaving the room, I found myself in a much larger one. I looked up; the ceiling had to be close to fifty feet above my head. It was made up of segmented glass panes, all of them filthy, so little light got through. Looking around the rest of the place, I saw it was stacked with piles of boxes just like “my” room. Probe weaved through the boxes, which were arranged so it was like walking through a maze. I followed close at her heels, not wanting to take a wrong turn and get lost. There were a lot of twists and turns but she seemed to know them all. Clearly, someone took a long time arranging the boxes like this. It was kind of cool but it didn’t seem to serve any other purpose than to annoy.

Finally, we got through them. This new area was open, devoid of the boxes. There was weight equipment in one corner, a long table and several mismatched chairs in the center. There was an old TV with rabbit ears and a mini-fridge. Both of them were connected to a purring generator. At first, I was a bit confused until I realized what this place was: Posse headquarters. This place was notorious because every law enforcement officer in the city was looking for it. I rubbed my eyes and coughed, it was in serious need of a cleaning. I looked along the far wall where several cots were set up; only a few looked like they had been used recently.

“So the Slumbering Hero finally awakens,” said a voice from above, the sound of it echoing through the large room.

I looked up and saw a metal staircase leading to an upper office. This place was clearly an abandoned factory, completely gutted. The room up top, the one where Damper was coming out, must have been the foreman’s office. He was standing on a metal catwalk, leaning against the rail. He was dressed like before but looked a little more haggard. He was definitely a man with a lot on his mind.

“I thought I told you people to leave me alone” I snapped, annoyed that they’d kidnap me.

He smirked. “Is that anyway to thank your rescuers?”

I wasn’t going to let this jerk get the better of me. “I would have figured some way out of it.”

He laughed. “Still spunky I see” He walked away from the rail and made his way down the stairs. There was a slight limp to his walk that wasn’t there before.

“You’re lucky that we came along when we did, that monstrosity would have killed you, no doubt.”

I shrugged. “I would have survived.”

You needed to act tough around these gangbanger types. If you didn’t then they’d eat you up and spityou back out. Damper was definitely the type of guy who could do that and more. I looked around the room and noticed we weren’t alone anymore. The other two were there as well. They looked a little worse than the last I saw them. The fat one, Scour, had his arm in a sling and the other one, Thumper, looked like someone had punched him in the face one too many times. Both of them were slipping out of the shadows, Thumper had a metal bat in his hand. Clearly, he remembered the thrashing I gave the two of them before.

“Thinking about round two?” I asked, pointing to the bat.

“You name the time and the place, chica.”

Damper didn’t look impressed. “Thumper, drop the bat. We’ve got a mutual understanding now, isn’t that right, Blue Beetle?”

“I know the score,” I said, casting a glance around the room. “You do something for me and I’m supposed to do something for you. Isn’t that how this works?”

Damper smiled. “Straight to the point, I like this chica.” The other two guys laughed, Probe stared at me blankly. Damper sighed. “We have a slight problem that we think you might be able to help us with.”

I nodded. “I’m listening.”

“As you might have noticed, we’re not exactly a thriving gang at the moment.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “There used to be seven of us. Two were taken a couple of weeks ago and the other abandoned us for greener pastures. We’ve been on the defensive ever since. That’s why we confronted you in the alley; we thought you might know where our comrades were.”

“I have no interest in Meta gangbangers unless they start shit with me.”

He nodded. “We know that now. We also know that you pissed off someone worse than us, someone who we believe might actually be the culprit behind our missing friends.”

I took a deep breath. “You mean La Dama?”

The others murmured. But Damper only smiled. “Those guys you busted up outside the diner belonged to her. She used to be a hardened criminal mastermind but lately she’s been branching out. Now she’s got a beef with us, she thinks that if she shakes down our friends and families that one of them will turn and tell her where to find us. She thinks she’s a great metahuman exterminator or something.”

“You think she took your friends?”

“We don’t think, we know.” He sighed and walked over to the table, sitting in one of the chairs. I followed and took a seat across from him. “That thing who tried to bash you, it’s called the Bottom Feeder. He’s some kind of twisted Meta that she recruited from down south or something. She’s got him convinced he’s doing God’s work by rounding up all the unworthy filth and bringing them to her. He’s been after us for weeks. So far, we’ve been able to fight him off but he’s a lot stronger than you think. We barely escaped him this time and we were dragging your sorry ass with us too.”

“What does she want Metas for?”

Damper shrugged. “Who the fuck knows. The word on the street is that she’s got some place in the desert; they call it Warehouse 13. She’s got a lot of our kind locked up there, doing some messed up experiments on them or some shit.”

I could see where this was going. I’m not sure if I liked it or not. I suppose it was wrong for her to be doing these things but these were bangers after all. “You want me to help you get them back, don’t you?”

Damper smiled real big. “The way I figure it, we saved your life and now you owe us a favor. Isn’t that how it works?”

I sighed. So they did want me to help them. “Why would I want to help put a bunch of gang bangers back on the streets?”

Thumper scoffed. “See, I told you this bitch wouldn’t help us.”

I clenched my fists. He was the second one to call me the B word, he was lucky that my armor was still recharging.

Probe spoke for the first time during this conversation. “Damper, just tell her.”

Damper rubbed his temples and in a soft voice, he told me what Probe wanted him to tell me. “It's like this, Bonita, she's my girl that they took. And well…the thing is…”

Probe groaned. “She’s carrying his child.”

Khaji spoke up. “There is no way I’m going to sit by and let you endanger the welfare of an innocent babe, even if it’s not born yet.”

“I wasn’t going too, I’m not a monster.”

I took a deep breath and opened my mouth to tell them I was going to help but I never got the chance. There was a loud crash from above. We all snapped up and looked as several black clad guys on repelling ropes slid down from the ceiling. Probe screamed and Damper backpedaled as the first one landed right in the middle of the table. He took us by surprise. He raised his gun, bringing it toward Damper’s face and Thumper was there, swinging the bat as hard as he could. The metal connected with the man’s face mask, sending him flying. He was still attached to the rope so he spun around the rope like a fish on a hook. He crashed into a pair of his friends and the three of them got tangled up together.

The other rapellers dropped into the room.

There was instant panic. Scour charged forward, flinging acid spit at two of them as they unhooked their harnesses. Damper grabbed Probe’s wrist and made a mad dash for the stairs leading up to the little office. But one of the guys moved to intercept. Damper vanished into thin air, leaving Probe standing there with a dumbfounded look on her face. I was frozen in place, unable to move as more men poured into the place. Some came from the ceiling while others came in through doors. They were quickly filling the place up, cutting off all the exits.

A hand grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around. It was Thumper, the end of his bat covered in blood. “Now would be a good time for your superhero thing.”

No kidding. “Khaji, how close are we?”

She sighed. “The armor is only charged up to fifty percent. If you summoned it, you’d have some capabilities but you’d never be able to block their bullets.”

As soon as she said this, one of the men fired. But it wasn’t bullets that came out of his gun; it was some kind of dart. He fired more, each faster than the other. I turned and saw his target: Scour. The big man ripped a couple of the darts from his chest, only to have more hit him in the back. He screamed and fell to his knees. Several more darts hit him; coming from all sides as five back clad commandos converged on him. He went down on his stomach and they kept firing. Scour convulsed on the ground then stopped moving altogether. I scanned him, with blue vision; thankfully, he was still alive, just heavily sedated.

“You need to get Probe,” said a voice to my left.

I snapped around and saw no one. I realized who it was. “You’re the one who abandoned her a moment ago, you get her.”

Damper growled. “I can only make myself invisible,” he said as if explaining. “Look you need to get her and get her out of here. She’s the only one who can find the others.”

I sighed. I looked around the room, through the chaos as darts flew this way and that. Probe ran into the maze of boxes, three guys ran after her. I turned to where I thought Damper was. “When I help you guys, we’re over. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal” he said and then groaned.

There was a dart hanging in mid-air. Slowly Damper materialized in front of me, a dart sticking in his shoulder. He smiled weakly at me and then fell forward. Two guys came toward us, guns raised. One fired at me. I raised my hand in defense and the armor appeared around my forearm. The dart bounced harmlessly away. Then I snapped my wrist, firing a blue ball of energy at him. It him full on in the chest, sending him crashing into a stack of boxes. I used that confusion to take off after Probe. I ran into the maze of boxes, dodging a few darts as they whizzed over my head. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to remember the path that the two of us took.

When I opened my eyes again, the boxes were glowing in a strange reddish hue.

“What is this?”

“Infrared” said Khaji “we should be able to find your friend now.”

“Is there anything you can’t do?”

“I’m a lousy singer.”

I smirked as I moved through the maze, using my new red vision to search for Probe. I didn’t find her but I found another red signature. He was tall and moving fast. It was one of the commandos, probably the last one to go in after her. I moved quick, transforming the armor boots on my feet to make me go faster. Apparently, I couldn’t form the whole armor at the moment but pieces were better than anything. I found the guy and took him from behind. My blue energy ball took him totally off guard, sending him flying forward into one of the box stacks. It wavered and toppled. There was a loud crash and a domino effect that I wasn’t counting on. Soon, stack by stack, they were toppling over, each one falling into the next one.

A few seconds after the initial one went over: I heard another groan. Apparently, I got one of the other bastards. Which left only one?

A scream told me where he was.

I took off running, the red vision leading the way. I spotted him not too long afterwards, standing amongst the shattered ruins of a pile of wood. At his feet was another red blob, slowly crawling away from him, it was Probe. He raised his gun to shoot her with a dart but I was faster. I formed one of my blades and ran at him. I put it through his shoulder, he screamed in pain. Hey, I’m no killer. I spun him around and slammed my armored forearm into his face, sending him pedaling backwards. He toppled into one of the still standing stacks, the heavy boxes falling on him.

Probe looked up at me, panting. I bent and pulled her to her feet.

“We have to get the others,” she said, taking ragged breaths.

I shook my head. “They have the others. Damper told me to get you out of here.”

She nodded. “C’mon, there’s a back way out of this.”

She grabbed my wrist and the two of us navigated the rest of the maze. We ended up back at the door leading to the room I woke up in. Instead of going inside, Probe took me over to a box resting against the wall nearby. She pushed all her weight into the box, slowly moving it aside. On the other side of it was a small wooden door that she tugged open. Through it, I saw light and what looked like an alley.

“You first” I said, pushing her through.

Then I turned and fired a couple energy balls at the rest of the maze, collapsing it behind us. Satisfied that our backside was blocked, I slipped through the hole.

___________________________________

“What’s the matter?” she asked as the two of us stood outside my house.

It’s come to my attention that I’ve described the inside of my house and never the outside. That’s not the reason I’m standing in front of it like an idiot just now, I’ll get to that in a moment. My house is a yellow, two stories; I’m not sure what they call it. There’s a little faded fence out front and a garden completely overgrown with weeds. My mother used to be a good gardener but that was back in El Paso. My parents bought this house in hopes she could pick up the hobby again but she’s been so busy with work that she barely finds the time. Can you see my father out there toiling in the dirt; I don’t think so.

But that wasn’t I was standing outside it like a moron. The reason I was standing out here was because of the lights. Usually at this hour---ten at night---all the lights in the house were on. Even the ones that shouldn’t be on. Now as I stood there and stared, every single one of them was off. It wasn’t the only strange thing either. My father’s truck was in the driveway. He should have been at the Queen’s by now. I should have been home too. Both my parents were working late and tonight was my night to watch Milagro. Mrs. Cruz was busy and I was supposed to be home before six so my father didn’t leave Milagro by herself.

“Are we going inside?” asked Probe, dancing on the balls of her feet, looking left and right up the street.

After escaping the old factory, the two of us ran like hell. We thought we were in the clear but the bastards gave chase. They chased us for two straight blocks, keeping good pace too. We finally managed to lose them when we ran into a police officer. He stopped us dead in our tracks and scolded us, telling us the finer points of pedestrian law. The goons slowed down and disappeared as soon as they saw him. We talked to the police officer for a few minutes and then took off at a brisk pace until we were around the corner then started running again.

“C’mon, let’s go through the side door.”

I led her up the driveway. I touched the hood of my father’s trunk, trying to see if it had driven recently. But it was cold to the touch. There was something wrong. My Dad mentioned something about running errands before work today. The hood should have still been slightly warm. I bit my lip and continued along the side of the house. I didn’t have my key for the door because it was in my backpack---something that got left at the factory. But it didn’t matter because I grabbed the door and turned the handle. It opened without a problem. Now I knew something was wrong. My father locked the doors even if there was someone in the house.

We entered the kitchen. My father’s paper was sitting on the table and my sister’s backpack was on the floor, its contents spilled all over. It wasn’t the only thing off. There was a cup of coffee sitting next to my father’s paper and my sister’s chair---the one she sat in for all meals---was lying on its side. I panicked and rushed into the living room. Probe followed at my heels. The living room was a mess. The couch pillows were on the floor, the TV was lying on its side, all the books were thrown off the bookshelves.

“Looks like there was a struggle” said Probe, looking around the room carefully.

My body seized up. I stumbled over to the couch, dropping to my knees in front of it. There was a crunch under my left knee. I lifted my leg up and found a familiar item. It was a glass dart, like the ones, those bastards were firing at us in the factory. I picked it up and groaned. It all made sense now; I knew where my family was. Panic took over. I couldn’t breathe; I started gasping for air. I struggled to my feet and back into the kitchen. Probe ran after me. She caught up with me at the sink and slapped me in the face. I sucked in a big breath of air and fell to my knees again; she lifted me back to my feet.

She slapped me again. “You need to pull yourself together. We can’t help them if you fall apart like this.”

“She’s right,” said Khaji “I’ve done some preliminary scans. It looks like this struggle took place shortly after your sister got home from school. They already got your father and it looks like they were lying in wait for her.”

“What about Mom?”

I didn’t wait for her to respond. I ran over to the phone and picked up the handset. As soon as I did so I saw we had a couple of messages on the machine. I pushed the button:

MESSAGE ONE: “I hate to bother you but this is Maria Tejas, Paco’s mother, I was wondering if he’s there with Josie. He didn’t come home from school today and I was worried.”

MESSAGE TWO: “This is Maria again. If Paco’s there, do you think you can have him call me? It’s getting late and it not like him to not call at least.”

I groaned. The bastards got Paco too, it was the only explanation. There was no way he’d stay out and worry his mother like that. At least I knew Brenda was safe, or I hoped she was.

MESSAGE THREE: “Hey, Reyes.” It was my mother’s supervisor. “Your lunch break was over hours ago, where the hell did you go. If you’re not here in ten minutes, I’m docking you a full week’s pay.”

They got Mom too. I felt the vomit rise up my throat but I forced it back down. Probe put a hand on my shoulder and I cried. I cried for a while, unable to handle any of it. Why the hell did she go after my family? It was one thing to try and get me but my family, what was she trying to accomplish. It didn’t make any sense. I squeezed the handset and let it gently fall to the floor.

When I finished crying, Probe turned me to face her. “I need you to be strong for me. I can’t do this on my own.” I nodded, the hot tears rolling down my cheeks still. She smiled. “We can’t stay here. This place is compromised. We have to move on. Is there any other place we can go?”

There were a few places but I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. I shook my head. Then I thought of something. “I’ve got some money upstairs; maybe we can hide out in a motel or something.”

“It’s a start.”

I led her up the stairs and into my room. It seemed to be the only place that wasn’t ransacked, not that I looked in Milagro’s or my parents’ room. “You can sit on the bed.”

She sat on the corner while I opened the closet and tore through it. I found an old gym bag of mine and dumped out the crap inside onto the floor. Then I went to my drawers, pulling them open and throwing clothes into the bag. Probe sat and watched, probably thinking I was some kind of frantic lunatic but I didn’t care. In the top drawer, while getting my underwear, I found my stash. When I first got here, I was strapped for cash, so my father suggested I go door to door and see if the neighbors needed any yard work done. He said not only would it give me some spending it might help me to get to know them better. The first month here, I made about a hundred bucks.

I pulled the empty peanut container from the back of the drawer and popped the top. There was close to five hundred bucks in there. It was what I called “Get Jaime a Car Fund”. I pulled everything out and stuffed it in my bag.

“This doesn’t look like a girl’s room,” said Probe, looking around.

I scoffed. “I’m in the process of redecorating.”

She stared at the wall for a few seconds then at me. “Were you a boy before, too?”

That caught me off guard. I dropped the bag and turned to her. I really looked at her. I knew she was a Meta but there was just no way…she looked so much like a girl it was impossible to think she was anything else. “I…ummm….”

“It’s ok,” she said with a laugh. “I thought it was kind of cool when I started to get my powers but then bam, one minute I was a guy and the next I’m shaking my legs and pits every morning.”

I nodded. “Are you the only one of the Posse who…?”

She shook her head. “Most of them, I think. We don’t really talk about it. All of us are runaways or cast outs. Damper is the oldest, about twenty-five. He found us and brought us altogether. He found the factory, too, and he made the plans. He told us we were going to be a gang and that we were a family.”

She sniffled. This time it was my turn to comfort her. I put my hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll get them back and then we’ll make everyone connected to La Dama pay for it.”

She nodded. “First we have to find them.”

I picked up my bag and zipped it shut. “We will.”

I walked over and gave her a hug. She sniffled some more on my shoulder but she didn’t cry. She was definitely more put together than I was. We were both in the same boat, both our families were taken now, and yet she was acting so tough.

We pulled away. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

I pointed to the door and the two of us started for it. We were almost out it when Probe paused, her whole body tensing in the doorway. I felt it too; I’m not sure what it was. My body tensed too, and the red vision came back. I saw them, there was only about six or so, but they had all the exits covered. I cursed and bit my lip. Then I looked at my hands, willing the armor to appear. It did but not fully. Like the factory, the armor only went as far as my elbows. So clearly, it wasn’t fully charged yet. I clenched my fists and handed her the duffel.

“This is going to get rough,” I said as I slipped past her and started down the hall.

I was at the top of the stairs when they kicked the front door down. Two guys poured into the living room. I fired off two blue energy balls. The first one missed its target and whizzed out the door past his head. The second hit the other guy in the chest, knocking him to the floor. I fired at the first guy again but the ball went astray a second time. He rolled to the left then snapped up on the other side of the couch. He aimed with a laser pointer and fired at my head. I snapped up my arm quickly blocking the shot.

There was a sound behind me. I snapped around and saw a guy coming out of Milagro’s bedroom. He raised his gun to fire but I got him first. My energy ball hit him in the face, throwing him to the ground.

There was a loud screech of tires outside. Then I heard doors slammed.

“We have more company” said Khaji “and a helicopter on the way.”

Two more guys came through the door. Probe screamed. I fired off a couple more energy balls but I missed. I cursed as they fired. I blocked one dart but the other nearly hit my cheek. I fell back, dragging Probe with me. A couple more guys surged into the house, clambering over their fallen comrades. I dragged Probe back into my room and threw her inside. Then I slammed the door shut. I snapped back around to the stairs and saw three guys coming up it. I raised by my hands to fire when I heard it. There was a slight whistling sound in the air. It was so quick. Then one of the guys screamed and fell forward. His face hit the top step and he slid down the stairs. Before he did, I saw a glint of green.

There was another whistling sound and another glint of green. One more guy screamed and fell to the ground. A third whistling sounded and something whizzed past my ear. I snapped around and saw a guy standing behind me, something long and green sticking in his shoulder. He screamed too and stumbled backwards, falling into the bathroom. I snapped back forward, raising my hands to ready myself for this new assault. But there were no more green glints or whistling sounds. Instead there was a figure standing framed in the front door. The figure was shrouded in shadow but it was wearing a hood and there was something long and curved in their hand.