Cosmos

Sally paced the storage facility with a sharp click of her heels. It nearly tore her up inside to think that the others were knee-deep in Council and she was here, baby-sitting some alien infested kid. She sat down on an empty barrel and rested her elbows on her knees, sighing deeply. She worried about what was happening in the mountain. After a moment, she grabbed her radio.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Toby said quietly. Sally looked at him irritably.
"Why not?"
"Because it could give away our position. Huh … that's odd …" He leaned closer to his screen. Sally jammed her radio back on her belt and walked over to him.
"What's odd?"
"Aside from you thinking leopard print is a good fashion option? Something called the Bomb Shelter has been activated and now flags up as compromised …" Toby pointed to something on the screen. Sally frowned, then swatted him around the back of his head.
"Have a little respect, you pre-pubescent twerp!"
"Hey! You touched me! That means I get to touch you back!" Toby flashed a grin up at her and she narrowed her eyes. Being the genius that he was, Toby decided not to lay so much as a finger on the toe of her boot and turned back to the screen.
"See, here." Sally looked at the incomprehensible strings of code.
"Can't you show diagrams or something?"
"Oh … I forgot you're kinda lame." He grinned when Sally swatted the back of his head again and tapped away at his keyboard, the code vanished, replaced with a far more recognisable sequence of diagrams and words. Toby pointed to a cross-section of the mountain.
"See, the Bomb Shelter must be related to this shaft that goes down here. There's nothing else down there, so it'd be protected by thick rock all around. Apparently … looks like there was an explosion. Odd." The young hacker shook his head.
"Could the team have gotten that high up to be the cause of the explosion?" she asked. Toby shook his head.
"They'd have had to go through the communication hub, and that thing's guarded like several members of royalty are having a [censored] up there." Sally frowned.
"Well, seems-"
"[censored]!" Toby suddenly slammed the computer off, getting to his feet. Sally jumped.
"What's wrong?"
"I got pinged. They know we're here." Toby looked honestly afraid, looking less like the smart-mouthed teen and more like a child. Sally grimaced and grabbed his arm, towing him out of the storage facility and slipping into the foliage. She motioned for him to stay low and keep quiet. He nodded fearfully, pressing himself down under waxy leaves. Sally snuck back to the facility, pulling herself up onto the roof. Lying flat to the tiles she peeped over the peak. Her eyes were used to the dark now, but unlike the city, it was truly dark. Above the stars burned with an intensity light pollution robbed them of in most countries. The night felt more real, and more likely to spring traps on her. Perhaps the absence of light was speaking to a latent instinctual fear from the days when humans were pretty high on the 'good eating' list.
After a while, she heard rustling in the jungle. She narrowed her eyes when something moved across her field of vision. She couldn't be certain, but she was reasonably sure that was a man. She kept flat, turning an ear to the tiles, listening hard. After a while, she was rewarded with a quiet voice murmuring in the room below. She tried to make out what he was saying when a piercing scream ripped through the air. She levered herself up and looked around. There was a wild crashing in the jungle behind her and she swore, pushing herself up and running down the roof, jumping off. She raced in the direction Toby was headed, the boy screamed again, in genuine terror. Stupid little brat, he was giving away his position. Sally hurdled a fallen, rotting log. She was going to kick his [censored] when she found him.
The jungle seemed to suddenly erupt into life all around her, there were shouts and the odd roar of a war wolf. She could smell the astringent smell of vampyr miasma and she swore again. The jungle was absolutely heaving with soldiers. She broke through a screen of waxy leaves and her eyes widened. There were three ranks of soldiers standing a hundred feet away from her. The front rank of five were down on one knee, the second rank of four stood just behind them and a third rank of five were standing on a low wall or fallen tree.
"Fire!"
All fourteen guns spoke at once and Sally barely had time to register the number before a wall of bullets hit her. The force alone slammed her back, pain etched its way through her entire body and she felt the ground hit her knees. She put a shaking hand up to her chest, she might not have taken wounds from the bullets, but she could feel one her ribs was broken. Breathing was so painful. The world skewed in her vision and she slammed a hand out, stopping herself from falling. Not to the Council. She would not fall down here to the bloody Council. Not without one good, solid hit first. She forced herself to look up, fixing the soldiers with a livid look, then she smiled. She was unstoppable, they had nothing on her. Nothing at all.
"KICK 'EM IN THE JIMMIES!" she screamed, every word costing her more pain from the broken rib. With a howl she surged up and threw herself at them. She reached the front rank and dropped to the ground, sweeping her leg around with enough force to slam them flying.
"Fall back!" The soldiers all ran backwards, not turning from her for a second. She didn't care, she could take them, she could take the entire island! She was invincible and they were going to know it really soon.
"Fire!"
Nine more rounds hit her, one of the men she'd knocked flying recovered to crack her across the face with his gun. They were good shots, this lot.
"Fire!"
More pain, it seemed to be reawakening in her body, like she'd managed to push it aside to charge. It was back now, reminding her that under all the enhancements and self-inflicted power, she was human and mortal. She felt the ground hit her side and closed her eyes in pain. Where was Avenger when you needed him?

Coming round was about as much fun as passing out had been. Sally groaned slightly, feeling light-headed and limp. After a moment, she moved her fingers and tried to move. She opened her eyes when she realised she couldn't move her hands because bands of metal were holding her wrists and elbows against a flat surface. Then it occurred to her that she was upright. She blinked and looked down at herself. Another band of metal crossed her chest and midriff and there were more bands down her legs. She squirmed a bit but they all held her down firmly.
"It's no good." A voice to her right said. She turned her head in that direction and saw Langlais in a less complicated arrangement, his wrists chained together and the chain padlocked to a ring in the wall. There were bruises all down his naked chest and face, a set of long incisions on his side that had been left to the air.
"Where're the others?" Sally demanded. Langlais shook his head.
"Avenger took off after some runners, K got hit by a rock, I don't know if he's even alive, and Cirrus will be in the infirmary. They won't let her regain consciousness before they can get rid of her," he said, looking at her, "so what happened to you and Starfall?"
"He got pinged, ******* soldiers were everywhere. We got separated when he went running off screaming his head off." She didn't bother to hide the disapproval in her voice. She wanted to keep feeling anger, anything that would keep her from feeling the terrible thought that he'd been killed and it was her fault. She just couldn't face that yet. Not yet. Langlais grimaced.
"This is not the best day of my life."
"No [censored], sherlock." Sally tried to move again, but soon she felt too tired to do anything but dangle from her restraints, letting them take all her weight. She'd never felt this profoundly exhausted in her life. It must have been an hour or more when the door to the room opened an a slender man with a ponytail walked in. His hands were laced behind his back and he smiled benignly at them both.
"Just came to see if the accommodations suit." Sally spat in his direction, annoyed to see the spittle hit the floor a good yard short of him.
"Go tell your boss that I'm going to spank him like it's an extreme sport and bake cookies on his [censored]!" she snapped. The man grinned widely and Langlais shook his head.
"Storm, he is the boss."
"Oh good, come here and put your head in my teeth." Sally bared her teeth. Nadir covered his mouth with a hand to hide his ever-widening grin.
"I like this one, Phillippe. She's feisty."
"Rot in Hell." Langlais looked at the floor. Nadir sighed, walking over to him.
"So cold, Phillippe? After I've so very generously spared your life even though you've been an exceptionally bad boy?" He folded his arms, staring at the man in chains. Langlais almost growled.
"You don't have any intention of killing me, don't start with the [censored]," he snapped, sounding clipped. Nadir laughed, clicked his fingers and pointed at Langlais.
"That's very true. You're still so clever, my dearest savage. And I'm very happy that you've brought me more pets for my collection. I especially like the work you did with the Resonator. Oh, and the Avenger, he's going to be a lot of fun."
"You're a bloody loony …" Sally muttered. Nadir spun on his heel and walked over to her and patted her on the head.
"'Fraid you're not quite special enough to make my collection. You chemically enhanced types are ten a penny. No offence darling. Shame, you're a bit of a knock-out and I'm sure the men will be very sorry to see you go." Sally tried to bite him but he wasn't even looking at her, his eyes had slid sideways to Langlais. She looked at the big Frenchman as well, surprised to see him standing up straight and his eyes livid.
"Get your hands off her." His large hands curled to fists and she could hear the knuckles crack. Nadir smiled.
"You know what it can be like for men stationed on a remote island in the middle of nowhere. They haven't even seen a woman for months, much less been in the same room with a divine beauty like this." Nadir stroked Sally's cheek, tugging his fingers just out of the way when she tried to bite him again. Langlais pulled his chains taunt as he tried to lunge at Nadir. The archon watched him swing around for a bit, then laughed.
"You know her name is Sally Storm, and not Giselle, right?" With that, he turned and left. Langlais yanked against his chains again, screaming what were undoubtedly obscenities after him. It was a long time before he claimed down enough to speak English again, which was useful, as Sally's French was rusty.
"What was that all about?"
"Never mind," Langlais snapped, breathing heavily. Sally arched an eyebrow and left it there for another hour. She was getting desperate for the toilet so spoke to distract herself from her growing discomfort.
"Who's Giselle?" she asked. Langlais grimaced, then hung his head.
"Doesn't matter."
"No really, why'd he say I wasn't her?" Sally rested her head back against the metal behind her. Her tiredness hadn't cleared up even a fraction, it wasn't a natural tiredness. After a while, Langlais sighed deeply.
"Because he knows that I used to care about a girl called Giselle before I was recruited. It's really not important."
"Well, I think it kinda is. He brought it up for a reason." Sally wriggled her fingers thoughtfully.
"She was the only human being who cared about me." Sally gave him an annoyed look.
"It's more than that. He's trying to get to you somehow by likening me to her. What happened to her? Because, y'know, a bit of forewarning might be nice."
"You really want to know? You really, really want to know what happened to Giselle?" Langlais sounded acidic, Sally met his glare.
"I wouldn't ask if I didn't wanna know."
"Okay. She was [censored] to death while I was held down to watch, then I was beaten to within an inch of my life, both legs broken and thrown off a bridge to drown," he said coldly, banishing all emotion from his face. Sally just looked at him. It was hard imagining anyone being able to beat someone as powerfully built as Langlais to within an inch of his life.
"Sounds fun, doesn't it?" His sarcasm made her look away.
"Is he going to do that?" she asked after a while. Langlais half shrugged.
"I don't know. Not until he gets bored of us, probably."
"Oh fantastic."

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

(and it just keeps getting worse ...

Muse came to when the door downstairs slammed. Moments later, he heard Nadir burst out into nearly hysterical laughter. He pushed himself up laboriously, wincing against the pain in his back and stomach. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood shakily. He found his trousers and pulled them on, taking care to lean against the wall so he didn't fall. Once he'd picked up his tee-shirt and pulled it on, he walked out and downstairs.
"Typhoon! Brilliant!" Nadir spun on his heel, looking up as Muse descended the stairs slowly. He winked at him as he walked over.
"Your rescuers came on a lovely, lovely boat. It's in itty bitty pieces now. I blew it up and there's a typhoon coming in so everyone's going to think they were caught in the storm. I win. I just love it when a plan comes togeth-" He stopped talking immediately when Muse punched him across the face. The archon worked his jaw, putting his hand to his cheek before looking back at Muse, surveying him intently.
"Did you just punch me?" he asked, incredulous. Muse punched him again for good measure, just in case he'd missed the first one. Nadir rolled his eyes and caught the next fist heading for his face, twisting it effortlessly and putting Muse down on his knees.
"Is this about me beating the heroes without breaking a sweat or about me gloating over it? Hmm?" he asked. Muse was holding his twisted elbow, wincing.
"You set me up! You son of a [censored]! You *******!"
"I didn't make him punch you into a computer. He did that all himself. Poor little you, so easy to punch. Do you always pick lovers with violent edges?" Nadir asked sweetly. Muse glared at him hatefully.
"What've you done with Adam?"
"Ooooh, his name's Adam? I like that," he said. Muse yelled, ripping his hand out of the archon's grip and surging up to tackle him to the ground. He lacked any kind of grace or finesse, his hands trying to grip his throat. He got a hold on the lapels of his jacket and tried to slam his head up and down.
"You evil son of a [censored], what've you done with Adam!!" Nadir grabbed his wrists, digging his fingers into the tendons to make them loosen and he pulled Muse's arms to either side.
"Temper, temper, Whithers," he said, grinning in great satisfaction. Muse headbutted him, making him yelp and kick him off, putting his hands to his nose. Muse looked around and saw one of Langlais's fine lamps in his reach. He didn't hesitate, just grabbed it and swung it at Nadir's head as hard as he could.
"You [censored] [censored], if you've hurt him I'll kill you!" Nadir blocked the lamp and put his fist across Muse's face with enough force to spin him once and drop him like a stone. He tossed the lamp aside, listening to it smash as he regarded Muse, who had his hand to his face. The archon reached his hand up to the blood trickling out of his nose and inspected it, turning his fingers back and forth so the liquid caught the light.
"I knew you couldn't possibly be as meek as you appeared. It's not exactly natural is it? You dear Adam is just fine. I figure a few long weeks will degrade his mental defences enough for me to force a blending." He grinned as he spoke. Muse looked up and around at him, dark eyes smouldering, a tear dislodged and ran down his cheek. Nadir smirked when he saw it.
"Face it, your pacifistic tendencies were always, ultimately, going to be a problem. You can't even defend yourself, always need to hide behind someone else. You're not much of a hero if you can't even protect yourself." It was like he was speaking the words that ran through the back of Muse's mind. He hung his head and his shoulders shook. Nadir looked victorious.
"I wouldn't worry about it though, when I've blended with your lover, you'll be the safest creature on Earth, and won't that be fun?" Muse was shaking all over, feeling sick to his stomach, he pushed himself slowly to his feet and turned to look at Nadir for a moment. The smiling mouth and the cruel eyes. He imagined that expression on Avenger's face and from nowhere, the shriek welled. He opened his mouth and just screamed.
Nadir's eyes widened for a moment, then he was slammed off his feet by the pulse of hardened sound, hurtling back a few feet. In a perfect circle around Muse, all the furniture tumbled over and even the dust swirled. Above, the light swung. Muse panted, struggling to keep his emotions, and more importantly, his sonic manipulation under control. Nadir's legs were sticking up over the fallen sofa. Muse's mind flashed up the memory of his mother sliding down the wall, leaving a smear of blood to mark her progress. He felt sick to his stomach, running over and jumping the sofa, kneeling by Nadir's side, ripping his shirt open so he could fumble his fingers to his neck. His pulse was slightly fast but strong. Nadir's hand reached up and grabbed the back of his neck. His eyes looked slightly manic, pupils dilated hugely.
"Whoa … colours … loooots of colours. You broke the world … " he sounded dreamy, then smiled widely and pulled his head down, kissing his lips. Muse tore himself away and darted to the other side of the sofa. This was not normal, this was not normal in the slightest. Usually people said 'ow' when he resonated. After some false starts, Nadir pushed himself up, looking wobbly and he made it three steps before slumping down again, looking at something in the air that was apparently fascinating.
Muse decided to take advantage of Nadir's state to escape, hurrying to the door and trying to pull it open. When it wouldn't budge, he looked around. Nadir was standing again, leaning on the breakfast bar and swinging something between his fingers.
"Looking for the key, Matty?"
Muse looked at his hand, then pulled off his tee-shirt, wrapping it around his hand and throwing the hardest punch he could at the glass. His knuckles bounced off and he gripped his fist, swearing profusely in pain. Nadir ambled over, pushing him back against the door and holding his wrists. He looked at the tee-shirt swathed fist curiously, then grinned in a slightly stoned way at Muse.
"So helpful of you to start taking your clothes off. Leaves less work for me, doesn't it?"
Muse realised there was no escape, his scream died in his throat as it tightened up with dread.

Langlais had his eyes closed, as if he was sleeping. Sally left off contemplating the general badness of her future and looked over at him. Langlais looked up at her suddenly.
"K isn't human, is he?" he asked out of nowhere. Sally blinked, then nodded slowly.
"The ears and tail gave it away, right?" Langlais looked impatient with her answer.
"No, you misunderstand, was he human and augmented? It's very important!" His urgency got to Sally and she frowned.
"No, he was a cat. Still is, he only looks human. Why?" She was surprised to see him smile broadly.
"Because we may have a fighting chance after all. I hope he's alive." And with that he bowed his head, closing his eyes. Sally just watched, mystified.

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

Jakey … wake up … good kitten … wake up now
Jakey groaned slightly, curling up tighter, flicking his tail over his eyes. He didn't want to wake up and be a good kitten in the slightest.
Jakey, I have fish for you … you have to wake up to get it though
Jakey opened both eyes and sat bolt upright, accompanied by a jingle. He blinked both eyes profusely and reached up to rub at them when he noticed his hand, and more importantly his arm. Someone had put him in some kind of ludicrous costume. It was bright orange fur with black stripes. The jingling came from a collar around his neck. He grabbed the over-sized bell in both hands.
"Oh they did NOT just put me in a tiger suit!?" He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the aching in his back and head. He looked around, livid. His cell had open bars on three sides and a wall at the back, there was a scratching post and some catnip toys scattered about. Acid bile collected in Jakey's throat as he fumed. This was the highest insult anyone had ever paid him. There was even a bowl with 'Jakey' written on the side. He snatched it up and threw it out of the bars. A soldier who was sitting at a desk in the corner looked around at the bowl and then at Jakey, then turned back to whatever he was writing.
"YOU *******, GET OVER HERE SO I CAN KICK YOUR TAIL!" Jakey threw himself onto the bars, his feet braced up on them, his tail fluffed to twice its size with sheer anger.
Try to put that to one side for now, Jakey. What insignia is the soldier wearing?
Jakey didn't question the voice in his head, it was trustworthy, eminently so.
"Hey Spaz-brain, I'm thirsty! Gimme water or I'll start singing," he threatened. The soldier ignored him.
"You asked for it." He jumped off the bars and retreated to the middle of the cell, crouched down and flung his head back, screeching his head off. After a full minute of caterwauling, the soldier came back hurriedly with some water for his bowl, sliding it in through the slot in the door. Jakey picked it up and drank to wet his throat again.
"Was a diamond," he muttered into the bowl.
Excellent. I want you to tell him these exact words: 'Order 42 is now being implemented, clearance code Langlais four four gamma tau mu'
Jakey flicked his ears back and put his bowl down, walking over to the bars and regarding the soldier.
"Order 42 is now being implemented, clearance code Langlais four four gamma tau mu." He watched him hard. The soldier slowly lifted his head and looked around, putting an arm on the back of his chair. He looked back at Jakey for a long time, then nodded, getting up. Jakey watched as he left the room, utterly mystified. Moments later the soldier came back and pulled some keys out, unlocking Jakey's cell.
"I've disabled the security surveillance from here to the communications centre and transmitted the code. The others will clear the way of Nadir's troops for us," he said. Jakey just stared, what on earth was this 'Order 42' about that a Council soldier was voluntarily letting him out of imprisonment? As if to answer, the soldier ripped the Council insignia off his collar and dropped it on the ground. Jakey blinked.
"Okay … what just happened?"
"No time, we've got a whole base of Council [censored] to evade until we get our hands on the real weapons." The soldier reached in and grabbed his arm, pulling him out of cell.
"Do you know where the rest of my team are?" Jakey asked, keeping up with the soldier easily. He nodded.
"Langlais and one of the women are in the detention cells down two levels, the little woman is in the infirmary, the invulnerable dude has been buried in the bomb shelter and that peacebringer kid is up in the lab. If he survived the Voids, of course." The soldier shuddered. Jakey's eyes widened.
"There are Void stalkers on the island?!"
"Nadir brought three of them with him. [censored] creepy bastards. By the way, name's Topoulos." The soldier, Topoulos, grinned. Jakey was trying to get his head around what was happening. It wasn't the first time he'd fought side by side with people he'd considered his enemies, most notably the Fir Bolg in Croatoa. Not bad people if you could get around the fact they had pumpkins for heads.
"Nice suit, by the way."
"Don't make me hurt you, Toppers."

Langlais breathed out.
"K is on his way. They'll take the communications centre first, lock all Council soldiers out of the mountain," he muttered. Sally had trouble believing that, eying him sceptically.
"Oh? And did you somehow magically make telepathic contact with Jakey?" she asked, acidly. Langlais half smiled at her.
"Something like that. I had hoped for more time to prepare for this eventuality, but desperate times, etcetera …"

Jakey was expecting a fight to take the communications hub, but instead, it appeared the fight had already taken place. There was a small heap of men in the corner, being guarded by two others and being gradually dragged away by a third. He looked at the men who were at the communication stations.
"The typhoon's going to hit the island in an hour. They won't be able to get a message out to the Council until it passes."
"Have you finished changing the security codes yet?"
"Almost, sir."
"I've got access to the drainer systems, deactivating now."
Topoulos turned to Jakey.
"We better get down to the boss and your friend. There's some vampyrs on guard down there. Think you can handle it?" he asked. Jakey smirked and punched his fist to his hand.
"Think you can keep up? Just point me in the right direction," he challenged. Topoulos motioned to two other men who'd just arrived, one clearly had just come in out of the rain. They fell in behind them as Topoulos hurried to a maintenance stairwell. The four of them rushed down to the right floor, Jakey jumping the railings out of frustration that the others were so slow. He booted the door to the tunnels open and sniffed. He could smell Sally from the left and he hurtled in that direction. The corridor twisted and looped around wildly but eventually he could see two of the sinewy, half emaciated looking vampyrs standing guard. He took a deep breath and centred himself before rushing forward silently. He was already airborne when he reached the first one, his foot slamming into the side of his neck and cracking it, he pushed himself off in a backwards somersault. The second vampyr noticed his fellow falling to the ground and half turned, taking a moment to register the tiny tiger and having no time to avoid having his legs kicked out from under him. Jakey darted back a step when the vampyr rolled back and slammed up his hand, sending a stream of miasma for him. It hit his chest and he coughed against the astringent stink. He shook his head, surging forward and leaping up in a spinning kick across the vampyr's groin. Whether or not the vampyr had any use for his loins given the way he looked was academic, he still had nerve endings there. He grabbed himself and his eyes bugged before he fell to his knees and collapsed onto his face.
Topoulos and the other two arrived a second after the second vampyr hit the ground, they all looked at the pair of them as Jakey rattled the door handle. Topoulos crouched down and was searching for a key when he heard a deep 'rrr' noise from Jakey and then saw him kick the door in a thrust kick. The door banged open, the lock torn off and it bounced off the wall. Topoulos held up the key he found.
"I take it you don't need this then?"
"Keys are for the under-caffeinated," proclaimed the cat as he hurried into the room.
"Jakey!" Sally grinned, delighted to see him, and especially delighted to see how cute he looked in his little tiger outfit.
"Sally!" Jakey grinned.
"You look so cute!" Sally couldn't resist it. Jakey's ears went back and he made fists.
"I am not bloody cute!"
While they disputed whether or not Jakey was cute, Topoulos unlocked Langlais's restraints and the other two took out little hand-held cutters, burning their way through the bands holding Sally down. Topoulos checked Langlais over, taking out some disinfectant and a bandage to deal with his side. The big Frenchmen only grunted in response to the ministrations.
"How many of us are left?" he asked.
"Twenty seven, sir. Nadir started culling us the moment he got here. Malone and Baxter were first," he answered. Langlais grimaced.
"Damnit, they were both fine men. What's happened to Whithers?"
"He's been in the tuner a few times, but I don't think he's given Nadir anything yet. He's a hard nut to crack when he wants to be. He was in the infirmary last night, was out with Stevens' patrol. I wouldn't be surprised if that son of a [censored] hit him himself. Glad he got crushed by air-conditioning." Topoulos left Langlais after he'd patched him up, going over to Sally and checking her over as she was released.
"Watch the hands, bub," she growled. Topoulos took her pulse.
"You'll be fine in a bit. The drainer's played havoc with your natural rhythms. Give yourself at least an hour to recover before doing anything stupid." He said it with the quiet optimism that he'd actually be listened to. Langlais grimaced, hand to his side.
"Next we collect Cirrus, then see what we can do for Avenger," he ordered. Topoulos nodded.
"Communications is secure, sir." He saluted. Langlais gave him a haphazard salute back, turning to the other two men as they packed their cutters away.
"Beauchamp, Roberts, you know what to do." The two men evidently did, as they saluted and then left hurriedly. Langlais looked at Sally and Jakey.
"To the infirmary." And with that, he strode out. Sally rubbed her wrists, feeling a bit wobbly still, dropping behind enough to talk to Jakey quietly.
"J, how'd you get out?" she whispered. Jakey looked up at her.
"Voice in my head told me this code to tell the soldier guarding me and when I told him, he let me out," he answered. Sally looked at him, then at Langlais thoughtfully.

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

It's a big one, we're getting to the last few chapters now

Collecting Cirrus was easier than collecting Sally and Langlais, as the infirmary had been under the control of the now defected troops from the get go. Cirrus was still catatonic from the much stronger drainer she'd been held against. Topoulos gave her an injection to help her back to the world of the waking and Jakey opted to wait with her until she woke up.
Langlais and Sally walked down to the Communications centre, both silent. Sally couldn't keep quiet though, the curious scientist in her begged for answers. She pondered how to bring it up subtly, until she half laughed at herself. Subtly was for mixing chemicals. Men needed self-explanatory sentences or they'd never get it.
"Okay, how the hell did you orchestrate that?" she asked. Langlais glanced down at her for a moment, then shrugged.
"I can talk to animals. I don't know why or how and frankly I don't care. We have more pressing concerns, Storm." He looked ahead again and left Sally to ponder his words. She wasn't sure she could credit him being able to talk to animals. What did animals even have to say for themselves, frankly? That trees were good to pee on? Under normal circumstances, she would have made some crack about Dr Doolittle, but Langlais was right, they had more important things to worry about.
The soldiers in the Communications centre looked efficient and were working quickly, reporting to each other with the confidence they were being listened to and that they knew their task. Sally knew the kind of feeling, she had felt it often herself, working with the other members of Honourable United. It boded well.
"What's the status of the bomb shelter and the lab?" Langlais asked, sitting down in a seat recently vacated by another man. Sally put her hand on the back of his seat as he leaned forward slightly to use the keyboard.
"The bomb shelter's cable was detonated using C4, a lot of the shaft collapsed onto it. The shelter itself is still intact but unless we somehow mod together a deep core drill, we can't get through," said a man to the right. Langlais scowled blackly.
"The lab's hosting all three of the Voids right now. I think they're standing guard over the peacebringer." Sally looked around at the speaker abruptly.
"Voids? There are Voids near Toby?!" She hardly dare think of what a mess the Voids had made of the boy. She did not quite understand what Voids were, but she'd seen what they could do to peacebringers and warshades. Both were susceptible to the energy Voids could fling around, so much so that the mere mention of a Void being present was enough to make a lot of them panic and retreat behind the nearest corner. Three looming over an unblended child and his passenger definitely counted as overkill.
"Show me the fastest route to the lab," she said. The man didn't look to Langlais for confirmation, he beckoned her over and showed her a route through the mountain on his screen.
"These sections will be clear, avoid this bit because Watson and his pack are taking out their frustrations on some of Nadir's Cor Leonis." Sally memorised the route and nodded, slapping his shoulder.
"Alright, I'll see you boys in a few minutes."
"Don't you want an escort?"
"Kid's my responsibility, and you know what they say about maternal instincts? Trust me, those three Voids are going to find out just how [censored] off a girl can get when they go around shooting children in her care." Sally strode to the door. She didn't see the man at the console half smile and bring up his surveillance data on the room's main screen, just so he could keep an eye on her progress while he did something else.
Sally reached the lift, finding it exactly where the soldier had said it was and got in. She hit the button for the lab's floor and watched the doors slide shut. She could barely believe she was working with Council soldiers. Normally she'd kick their spleens out before even looking at them. It was all Langlais's fault. He was different. Just knowing him had changed her. She just couldn't understand why he'd even joined the Council in the first place. Why would a man, any man, do that? If he'd joined the other side, she had no doubt he'd have been a hero she'd be proud to fight alongside.
Maybe that was the crux of the problem. She felt comfortable with him watching her back, like she could trust him implicitly, and she did not want to trust him while he had any affiliation with the Council. It felt like she was dishonouring her father.
The lift door dinged and slid open, revealing an empty corridor, as the soldier had promised her. She marched down it, almost disappointed at the lack of resistance. Still, three Voids weren't going to go down easy, even though she was human. She reached the lab door and found it closed. She took a deep breath and opened it, stepping in. The three Voids all had their backs to her, all facing a gurney pushed up against the wall. If there was anything Sally Storm disapproved of in an adversary, it was being ignored.
"Oi! Bastards!" she yelled. Her tactic worked, as the three turned, almost simultaneously, their balance altering as they swivelled their bodies around. Sally raced over the lab, watching their slow, aching movements, she dropped to the ground, put her hands down for balance and snapped her leg out straight, bringing it scything around their ankles. With a curdling yell, all three fell over, knocking into the gurney and then the floor. Sally surged up and snapped out a quick side kick into one before darting back as his friend got up. Using the extra space, Sally leapt forward, throwing all her weight and motion behind one heel and slamming it into the scarf that covered the Void's throat. He gave a gurgling choke and fell back, assisted by her crouch and thrusting somersault off. She turned to deal with the third Void who levelled a quantum rifle at her. He fired but his aim was bad. Sally felt the energy beam whoosh through the air to her left as she ducked in, grabbing his shoulders in both her hands and pulling him towards her as she rammed her knee up into his groin. He made no sound but a whistling exhale and she let him drop to the ground, spinning the top of her foot across the recovered first's face with an audible crack.
The fight was over in less than ten seconds. She straightened and breathed, putting her fist to her palm and drawing them to her chest before pushing them down and away. That would teach the Voids to pick on children. She turned her attention to the gurney and she bit her lower lip.
Toby was sprawled out on it, clearly having been just dumped by his indifferent captors. His back was a stick mess of blood that slicked his burned tee-shirt and jeans. Sally stroked his hair slightly, forgiving him instantly for screaming in the woods. If she'd been in his situation and seen three Voids coming for him, she would have screamed too. Her doctor's sense told her not to attempt picking him up, so she rearranged him on the gurney and started to wheel it out of the lab, taking great care to stand on any fingers or other vulnerable body parts the Voids left in her way. Toby needed a visit to the infirmary and fast.

"The problem is how to get him out of the bomb shelter. It was designed to withstand a nuclear blast." Langlais leaned back in his seat as he spoke. Cirrus and Jakey stood behind him, the former nursed her head, her long hair out of its customary braid and left to fall down around her hips.
"Well, you must have envisaged a way to get out once the blast is over."
"What about this?" Jakey leaned past Langlais and traced a finger along a dotted channel on the screen. Langlais shrugged.
"That's an old volcanic vent. We blocked it off." He reached forward and his big fingers flew over the keyboard, a square zooming in to the passage and then enlarging it till it filled the entire screen. Langlais pointed to the blockages.
"At every hundred feet, there is a blast wall. We didn't fill it with concrete in case the mountain decided to start building up magma again."
"Pressure release valve of sorts?" Jakey asked. Langlais nodded.
"I don't see what relevance this has …" he said, looking around at the cat. Jakey half grinned.
"That's because you've never seen Venji angry. Cirrus, how much you know about Newtonian physics and quantum mechanics?" Cirrus gave him a blank look and shrugged.
"A little … why?"
"Because if you can manipulate gravity, you should theoretically be able to create a wormhole and transport …" Jakey saw her diminishing understanding and let his voice trail off. Langlais frowned.
"Gravity manipulation?"
"Oh for Pete's sake … just keep your seats warm until I get back or something." Jakey left, snagging a man's pad and stylus as he went. Langlais watched him go, then looked back at Cirrus. She shrugged, not having any idea what Jakey was talking about either.
"How are you feeling?" Langlais asked after a while. Cirrus nodded as a man vacated his seat so she could sit down next to him.
"I'm alive. Thank you, by the way."
"For what?" Langlais busied himself with jamming a rogue transmission from the confused Council outside.
"For taking the grenade. I would have been dead three times over if you hadn't kept getting between me and the action." It was hard to admit, but it was the truth.
"I'd do the same for anyone who fought by my side," he said. Cirrus glanced at him, her stormy eyes tracing over his profile. She believed him.
"This is strange," he muttered suddenly, reaching his hand up to click something. Cirrus frowned lightly.
"What is?"
"I'm detecting active surveillance equipment in the chalet. There wasn't any there before I left." He scowled at the coded encryption that flashed up on his screen, "go see if Starfall is with us yet, I'm going to need help on this one."
Cirrus nodded and got up, limping out to the infirmary. The corridors may have been in control of the rebels, but they were as austere and militant as they'd been under Council rule. The only decoration was the Council insignia, a 'C' in a kind of comet tail. Cirrus found the place to be oppressively dark. It was no wonder the Council were vicious criminals if they had to live like this, day after day.
The infirmary was just as bleak as the rest of the base, the only colour was Sally's yellow and black cloak draped over half of a bed. The woman herself was sat on the edge of the bed, talking to someone quietly. Cirrus walked up to her.
"Sally?"
"Oh hey, Cirrus. You missed me beating the snot out of a bunch of Voids." Sally grinned winningly and Cirrus responded with a small smile of her own.
"Is Toby awake?" she asked. Sally looked down at the boy on the bed.
"Well, sprog, you alive?"
"Mostly," Toby said as he pushed himself sitting with a hiss. Sally slipped off the bed, helping him to sit up.
"Langlais needs you in Communications. He needs help with some machine code or something," Cirrus said. Toby grumbled.
"Great. It'll be a ******* code if he needs help. Give us a hand to the comm. centre, would you?" He swung his legs off the edge of the bed and Sally helped him to stand. Cirrus moved out of the way so they could walk past her to the tunnel.
Langlais looked up when they arrived and nodded to Toby.
"We've got an encryption to work out, I think its using base eight." Toby nodded back and sat down next to him, wincing as his back pressed against the seat, but then he put his hands to the keyboard and such worldly concerns were no longer foremost on his mind. Cirrus stood beside Sally, watching the pair work.
"You know, I thought I was pretty good with computers before this," she said offhand. Sally nodded.
"Yeah. I can deal with most systems but … damn. What's 'base eight'?" She'd heard the term before somewhere, in passing, but couldn't remember what it meant. Cirrus shrugged.
"Short of base eight maths, a mathematical system based on eights rather than tens. Why?" Jakey asked, down by her elbow. Sally looked down at him, arching an eyebrow.
"And you know that, do you?" she said, smiling a little indulgently. Jakey shrugged.
"That or it's the eighth base on a baseball pitch." Sally put her hand to her face. Just when she thought Jakey might be smart, he came out with something so utterly stupid. He passed a pad over to Cirrus and she looked at it.
"That's as simple as I can make it." Cirrus nodded to his words, looking it over.
"Y'know … I think this could work. The range won't reach into the bomb shelter though." Jakey nodded.
"I'm working on that."
Langlais looked up when the screen changed from code to video surveillance, he flicked through the channels, showing several empty rooms of the chalet and then caught the one in his own bedroom. For a moment, he was just frozen, then he reached over and covered Toby's eyes resolutely.
"K! Storm! Tintagel! Get over here." Toby objected loudly to having Langlais's big hands over his eyes, trying to push him off very optimistically. The other three drew over and stared for a long second.
"Okay … that's not right. We've gotta get over there and kill that Nadir *******!" Sally was shaking in anger, she hadn't felt this furious for a very long time. Cirrus paled a little, her hair stirring as if she had her own private breeze. Jakey frowned.
"Is there a screen in the bomb shelter?" he asked suddenly. Langlais looked at him.
"Yes. Why?"
"Because I just thought of a way to get Avenger into teleport range. Start recording this and change the channel-"
"Jakey, we have to go save Muse NOW!" Sally objected angrily.
"We can't just stand by while that is happening!" Cirrus agreed, her hair whipping up above her head. Jakey showed a few teeth.
"We are not 'just standing by'. Langlais, you said there was an old magma vent here, right? That you blocked up with blast walls strong enough to survive everything but a direct assault by a force of nature?" The cat strode over to another computer screen, pointing out the vent still displayed on the screen. Langlais nodded a little.
"Yes, but-"
"Toby's going to patch through to the comms in the bomb shelter, and show Venji what that sick ******* is doing to Muse. It'll make him so angry, he's going to literally smash his way through the path of least resistance. To further channel him, you are going to get your men outside, Langlais, and clear a path from the mountain to the chalet. Cirrus, you will be positioned here-" He pointed to part of the mountain side, "- and you will teleport Avenger as far ahead as you can. You should be able to see the house roof from your position. Sally, you will be helping Langlais and his men to clear the area. Keep ALL distractions from intercepting Avenger's path. Toby, once you're done feeding the video file to Avenger, you are to stay here and hold down the fort. If we lose the mountain now, it'll be a hard fight getting it back. Now, there's a typhoon going on outside, the weather will be wild, hampering both visual and auditory ranges. Keep your eyes open and look after the man or woman on your left. You all know your jobs and your positions. Get to it, and may your hunting go well."
Sally watched as Jakey walked out with his ears back and tail swishing. This was a side of him she'd never seen before. She had to pinch herself to check this was real, then rubbed her wrist ruefully as it objected to being pinched. Langlais gave a great, explosive sigh and stood up, calling for some of his men by name. Sally looked at him and he beckoned to her.
"Come on, time to get out the real weapons. We're going to need them if we're to clear a path of least resistance for Avenger." Sally just nodded dumbly.
Toby immediately fell to doing what he did best and Cirrus ran off, her hair still whirling wildly behind her.
They finally had a plan to go through with.

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

Muse could hear the storm outside, blowing the trees and rattling the tiles. He stared at the ceiling, listening to Nadir's heavy breathing in the half dark. Only the soft light of candles warmed the dark. He wanted to try and trick himself into thinking the weight of a body against his chest and side was Avenger, but he couldn't bring himself to draw a parallel between them. He hardly dared contemplate tomorrow night, he'd been able to avoid sex with Nadir, noticing that his sonic pulses made the archon go incredibly silly and spaced out. Currently the nictus was dreaming off an overload of seventeen in quick succession. Not before he'd slobbered over Muse's chest and drooled on his shoulder, of course. It was really quite repulsive.
Muse slithered out from under the nictus, sitting up and snagging his tee-shirt from the floor. He felt the bile rising again and put his hand to his mouth. Getting the desire to vomit to pass took a few moments, filled with false starts. He shook his head and got up, dragging his trousers off the bed post and pulling them on. There wasn't much time. The storm would cover the sound of breaking glass downstairs and if Nadir spent a long time sleeping off the sonic bursts, then that was all to the good. Avenger was here, on the island. He just had to get to him, and everything would work out somehow. He hurried down the corridor and down into the living room. Movement by the glass doors drew his attention and he frowned, trying to see what it was in the darkness. A flash of lightening revealed several things. One, that Jakey was standing by the door in the most adorable tiger outfit with cat bell on his collar; two, that he was waving frantically and three, that a wad of plastic explosives were stuck to the glass. Muse threw himself behind the breakfast bar and a moment later, there was a burst and shattering squeal of glass.
"J?!" Muse asked, peeping over the bar. Jakey beckoned.
"You don't wanna be anywhere near this place when Venji arrives. C'mon!"
Muse didn't need telling twice, shooting over the bar and riding a whoosh of sound past the cat and down onto the sand. The wind was loud in his ears and the surf boomed wildly on the shore, slamming it with towering waves.
"How'd you get loose?!" Muse had to yell to get his words to carry over the howling wind to the cat stood right next to him. Jakey put a hand to his ear.
"What?!"
A crash from the chalet made them both jump. Muse paled.
"Explosion must have woken Sleeping Beauty up," he yelled at Jakey. The cat shrugged, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from the chalet. It wasn't long before they reached Sally, Cirrus and Langlais. Muse was startled to see Langlais with them, but he felt immediately safer and started to look around for Avenger.
"Where's Adam!" he yelled.
"He got ahead of us when we got side-tracked by some vamps!" Sally put her hands by her mouth as if to protect her voice from the wind. Jakey swore.
"C'mon! Everyone run, to the chalet!" he turned and pelted back the way they'd come. Muse ran flat out behind him, suddenly terrified he wasn't going to see Avenger ever again.

Avenger was filled with a fury so stark he could barely think straight. He'd been huddled in the corner of the bomb-shelter, trying not to break down crying over what he'd done, when the screen flicked on again. He'd looked up and seen his lover prone on a bed with that foul *******, Nadir, kissing his neck. Just seeing the archon's hands on his lover had been enough. He didn't dare imagine how much further that had progressed, he couldn't bare the thought of Muse being forced to do anything he didn't want to do. He couldn't bare the thought of Nadir harming a hair on his head. Nadir was going to pay, so dearly, for even breathing near him.
He could see the chalet ahead, his rage seemed to manifest around the edges of his vision, tinging it red. He barely registered the smashed door, not when saw a man open the frame and lean heavily on it, nursing his forehead as he sagged a bit. He didn't look so cocky now, nor so neat, but it was Nadir. He wanted to shout something relevant, something about not being allowed to touch his man, but all that came out was a primal, animalistic scream that shook the ground. Nadir looked up foggily, frowning as he saw Avenger sprinting for him. At first, he didn't understand what his eyes were showing him, but once he'd blinked the fractal rainbows and bright sparkles that accompanied every boom of the waves from his eyes, he had time to swear once before Avenger's fist hit his face with enough force to send him flying through the living room. He put his hand to his face, rolling onto his side.
"'Ow did you ged oud?" he demanded. Avenger was too furious to answer, grabbing him up by his arms and spinning wildly, hurling the man back through the reinforced glass leading to the porch. Nadir didn't even hit the decking, instead soared right over the railing and the steps and landed with a thud and a roll in the soaked sand of the path to the beach. He groaned and pushed himself up, seeing Avenger come jumping out of the gloom just in time to roll up to his feet. He circled with the furious man, his hands by his sides lazily, blood streaming down from his nose, dribbling over his bare chest. He smirked.
"I had him twice over, you know. He screams beautifully." Avenger was nearly paralytic with savage rage, but he still managed to swing for Nadir. The archon darted back, sprinting for the beach. Avenger tore after him with a howl like a wounded bear. He pushed his feet tighter against the ground, throwing himself forward in a long leap, slamming into Nadir's back and slamming the man down. They went rolling over and over down into the churning waves. The force of the angry sea was enough to smash them apart and flip them both wildly. Avenger felt his head hit the bottom but he was too angry to pay it any heed, surging up with an explosion of sea water. He looked around wildly.
"NADIIIIR!?"
"Up here, precious. If only you could see the colours." Avenger looked up to see a squid-like creature with tendrils dancing at the shoulders and a strange, ant-like head looked down at him from above. Around it swirled purple black nictus. Avenger snarled, crouching and rocketing up, his fist aiming at Nadir's wedge shaped head. The Nictus looped backwards gracefully, slapping him in the face with the two tentacles of his tail, the sucker pads had razor edges that cut off some of his stubble. Avenger landed with a splash in the breakers, battered by the huge, rolling waves. A sound like a piano dropping sounded overhead and a smash of nictus energy hit him full the face, blinding him. He grabbed at his eyes with a furious bellow. Nadir dived and slapped his head with his tail again, seemingly just because he could. Avenger snapped a hand up and grabbed at the tentacles, missing them by a whisker. Nadir whooshed around behind him, mocking his awkward staggering in the waves bombardment with his aerial grace.
"ADAM!" A voice ringing out, over the screaming howl of the wind, over the boom of the waves and the dropped piano of Nadir's nictus beams, caught Avenger's attention. He looked to the shore, surprised suddenly at how far away it was. Figures were on the sand. Langlais, holding both Sally and Jakey back from the waves, knowing full well that both were daft enough to get themselves drowned by accident, Cirrus with her hair blowing free and wild as the typhoon that raged around them and …
"Matt …" Avenger whispered. There was a massive splash between he and the shore and a creature reared out from the depths, water rolling off great armour plates and massive arms spreading as it roared. Tiny, black eyes set deep in the protective armour shell caught Avengers, and though the face couldn't grin, he could see its amusement.
"My Matt. Not yours anymore. All mine. My very own. Mine." Something about the way Nadir said it made Avenger scream wordlessly, tearing over to him, sending water splashing as he tackled the beast head on. It was even more solid than it looked, and smashed him on the back with enough force to send him under the waves.
Muse started to run into the waves when Cirrus grabbed his belt, hauling him back with all her diminutive strength.
"It's too dangerous, Matt, ye'll be killed!" she yelled.
"Teleport him, Cirrus!" Jakey screamed, dangling from Langlais's grip and flailing wildly with all his limbs. Cirrus kept hold of her 'brother' with one hand and brought the other clenched to her face, whispering words under her breath. There was a flash and a whoosh of displaced air and Avenger fell out of the air by their feet with a thud. Muse tore free and ran to him. There was a second flash, this time of dark energy and Nadir stood between them. He flexed his massive, clawed fingers.
"How nice of you to group yourselves like skittles!" he said, then stomped his right foot forward. The ground lurched under their feet and there were yells of surprise and shock as they all went flying. Jakey landed on his feet, then was hit with rather more low-flying Sally than he could take and they both went down. Nadir laughed, his voice booming over the howl of the typhoon. Muse picked himself up, looking at Avenger. Nadir looked at him as well.
"Seems the Midnight Avenger over-reached the limits of his power after all. Shame, his body would have made a fine house."
"No!" Muse screamed, throwing himself to his feet and running to Avenger's side. Nadir let him, laughing.
"Poor little Resonator, did you think I was all bark and no bite? No more of your precious Adam. Just wait there until I finish with these vermin." He started to turn away. Muse put his hands on Avenger's back, looking at Nadir.
"You wanted the Cosmic note? You wanted to know the frequency of life itself?" he didn't yell above the wind, yet somehow, Nadir heard. Or maybe it was just coincidence, as he turned back sharply. Muse closed his eyes and the air around him rippled, visibly warping. Nadir took a step back, as if expecting a sonic wave to explode outwards.
There was a gentle, soft pulse, a bare ripple in an atmosphere so turbulent it was almost missed. Avenger coughed and choked up a lungful of water, pushing himself up on his arms.
Nadir stared, then pointed a shaking, armoured hand at Muse.
"You had it all along!? You deceitful, lying *******! YOU WILL REGRET HIDING THIS FROM ME!" His howl of rage was accompanied by a crack of thunder. He charged across the sand at Avenger and Muse, then grunted as he felt gravity double, then quadruple under his feet until he couldn't move his huge frame. Behind him, Cirrus had her hands out, the rain whirling around her.
"I'll hold him down! You guys do what you do best!" she yelled. Sally and Jakey needed no further encouragement, they were already running at the huge form of Nadir, both leaping up simultaneously, contorting their bodies to bring their favoured foot forward and slam it into the small of Nadir's back, then both somersaulting off neatly, spinning to the side. Langlais charged down between them, bringing his fists up and smashing them down on his shoulders.
"Go do what you do best, Adam, I'm watching your backs." Muse's feet left the ground as he hovered on his cushion of sound. Avenger nodded and just squeezed his hand before throwing himself at Nadir with a yell of rage.
The archon fought wildly up until the very last moment, as if he was convinced the heroes would suddenly keel over dead. Not while Muse himself was drawing breath. Avenger felt the warm reassurance of his sonic resonance, could feel it reaching into him, encouraging his body to heal, keeping his muscles working at optimal efficiency with an internal massage.
It took a moment for him to realise that Nadir had collapsed back into his human form, looking horrendous. Before he could react, Langlais grabbed the man's head from behind and with a sharp twist, broke his neck. Nadir slumped like a puppet whose strings had been severed. Jakey put his hands on his knees and blew out.
"Damn … " he said it quietly. Killing people didn't sit right with him, but he felt he might be in a minority on this one. Langlais just stood there, staring down at the fallen archon, then looked up at Avenger. The latter frowned lightly, there was something in Langlais's eyes he'd never expected to see.
Regret.
Before he could say or do anything, the ex-archon turned around.
"We've got an island to take back."

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

The typhoon blew itself out a few hours after dawn, leaving the island in a mess in its wake. After a night of terrible conditions outside and running gunfights in the jungle, the Council had surrendered. Langlais nodded to Topoulos, who was wearing a kind of curved sword at his hip, as he approached. The medic saluted him back and he put his hands on his hips as he listened to the man's report. Once the medic had left, he tipped his head back, looking at the cloud strewn sky with a half smile.
"You're looking very pleased with yourself," Sally muttered, feeling cranky because the coffee machine had been broken in the fight. Langlais looked down at her sideways, then chuckled.
"I am. As you should be." Sally frowned.
"Oh?"
"You have witnessed the birth of something, and it was a birth I couldn't have wished for. I always envisaged Stargazer to rise from the Council in a bloodbath and maybe never get free. But it has risen with … honour." He half smiled, as if mocking his own whimsy. Sally blinked.
"Stargazer?"
"My group. It's called Stargazer," he said. Sally looked at the rows of the Council troops as they sat with their hands behind their heads, guarded by the defected troops. Only one of the war wolves was left from a particularly vicious engagement between they and the Council vampyr night wolves.
"Okay. Can I ask you something else?" she asked finally. Langlais nodded, lacing his fingers behind his head.
"Why 42?"
"It's the answer to the ultimate question. The question being, how do I keep my men alive when we defect from the Council." Langlais looked at her again. Sally found herself grinning as she shook her head.
"That's terrible," she chuckled. Langlais grinned widely, half laughing as well.
"I know. I know." They both laughed for a few more moments, then Langlais sighed and looked around almost soulfully. Sally saw something in the sky, far away and shielded her eyes with her hand.
"What's that?" she asked.
"The Tintagel Hercules. Coming to pick up you people and arrest the arrestable." Langlais said it easily. Sally blinked.
"They have a Herc? Where's it going to land?!"
"There's an airstrip on the other side of the island. Just long enough for a Hercules. Where is Avenger?" Langlais turned, looking around. He could see Jakey lounging on a fallen palm tree, napping in the sun, Cirrus perched nearby, braiding her hair. Toby was chatting animatedly to one of the younger Stargazer soldiers, making wild arm gestures but there was no sign of Avenger or Muse. Sally coughed.
"Why you want to know?" She had a feeling that Muse and Avenger were having some very hard-earned private time together.
"I would like to surrender to your leader." Langlais looked at her seriously. Sally put her hand.
"That I can arrange." She walked away from him and over to Jakey. After a moment, she pushed him off the tree, watching him thump to the ground.
"Wakey Jakey," she said sweetly. Jakey scrambled up, rubbing the side of his head with a yawn.
"What?"
"Langlais wants to surrender to our leader. C'mon." She reached over to the back of his tiger suit and picked him up, carting him over to Langlais.
"Commander Langlais, I present you with our fearless leader." It really was too good to pass up and she grinned a little. Jakey looked up at Langlais, then started purring for no apparent reason. Langlais blinked, opening his mouth for a moment, then closing it again, choosing not to question, just to accept. He knelt down on one knee to be able to look Jakey in the eyes.
"Will you accept my surrender, Jakey K?"
"I will. You've been more help than we could have expected or asked for. Thank you." Jakey, for once, didn't cheapen the moment with flip words, holding his hand out. Langlais took it, swamping Jakey's delicate digits in his massive hand and shaking it gently.
The Tintagel Hercules thundered overhead, sending a fresh wind shivering through the island. Cosmos had been set to rest, dormant again.

"Horus Force have moved out all of the hostile prisoners. Guess that just leaves your 'Stargazers' to get loaded onto the Herc," Touch of Class said, positively basking in the bright sunshine of noon. He looked almost sorry to have completed his assignment. Sally grinned at him.
"Wish you could stay longer?"
"It's a tropical island paradise … who doesn't want to stay longer?" Class answered, with just as broad a smile, then he chuckled when Sally raised an arm.
"Alright, alright. Point taken. Well, let's see. Headcount places twenty five Stargazers and one warwolf who they say is with them in our care. You taking them to be tried in Paragon or do we get to charge them in Maidenhead."
"Langlais surrendered to Honourable United, so we'll take them," Sally said. Class nodded and put his hands in his pockets, looking at the trees, then back at her.
"You want another dancing lesson or what?" he asked with a grin. Sally giggled, then linked her arm in his and dragged him off to find somewhere private to be taught how to dance those swanky, posh-type dances he was so good at.
Jakey flicked his ears as he saw them run off together, then shook his head, immediately cooking up excuses for their absence that would indicate they were involved in far less innocent pastimes. Just because he could. He watched as a puppy came bounding along the open field to the soldiers who were all sitting nice and quietly in rows, it gambolled its way all the way to Langlais and bounced around him. Jakey slipped out from his shady patch under the trees and walked over slowly. He sat down next to the big Frenchman, watching the puppy gambol around.
"Yours?" he asked after a while. Langlais nodded. It wasn't long before Muse and Avenger walked along with Bulldog, the former two still holding hands. Jakey privately doubted they'd let each other go for anything longer than a toilet break, and even then, that wasn't especially a given.
"Alright, lets get these bastards into the Herc and get home. Jester will be expecting a full debriefing." Bulldog scowled down at the Stargazer troops indiscriminately. Avenger nodded.
"Langlais, I think they'd prefer you to give the order," he said, addressing the ex-Archon. Langlais nodded and rose to his feet, just as a caracal bounded past Jakey and leapt effortlessly onto his broad shoulders.
"Stargazers, atten-shun!" he barked. As one, the soldiers and warwolf surged to their feet and saluted sharply.
"About face!" With the same knife-edge discipline, they all spun on one heel until they were facing the opposite way.
"Alright, you 'orrible lot, Topoulos is in command." The medic straightened slightly.
"Quick march! Left, right, left right." The soldiers marched off in perfect time, leaving Langlais stood with the heroes. Muse glanced up at him and almost smiled at the bordering on smug expression he was wearing.
"You know the Council are going to be furious over this. Guess we should get started on clearing out the mountain." Bulldog said, his arms folded. Langlais gave a small cough.
"About that." He reached to his back pocket and took out a small device with a single, shielded red button. Without pausing, he flicked the clear casing up with his thumb and pressed his button. Muse nearly screamed and dived for Bouncer, grabbing the puppy up tightly. Bouncer licked his face with a furiously wagging tail.
The top of the mountain rumbled and smoke and fire burst out of every entrance. Langlais tossed the detonator to Bulldog, the redhead fumbling to catch it with an aghast expression.
"Stargazer's secrets remain secrets. Sorry to disappoint you and your government. Well, off to America with me. I hear the prison uniform is so much brighter." Langlais sauntered off. The three heroes watched him go with varying expressions of stunned amazement, the Bouncer wriggled out of Muse's arms and bounded after his master, barking happily. Avenger went to say something.
"Don't say it," muttered Bulldog. Jakey however, was not intimidated.
"You just got [censored] owned, mate." He couldn't keep the brilliant smile from his face, nor did he try.

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)

Epilogue

Muse leaned against Avenger, arms around his neck as he whispered something in his ear that made the other chuckle. Jakey ignored them as he slumped on the sofa, picking up the remote and changed the channel.
"Why's there never anything on television on my day off?" he asked. Sally looked the corner of the kitchen, even though she was wearing her hero mask, she had dressed down for the day off, wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, her hair back in a ponytail.
"Because the world is conspiring against you, J. Who wants fajitas?" she asked. Muse left off nibbling Avenger's ear to say yes, and Avenger agreed. Jakey picked up his packet of crisps.
"Sure thing. Make lots though, I'm starving," he said around the crisps. Sally nodded.
"Yeah yeah! Get the door," she added when there came a knock. Jakey left Muse and Avenger to their cuddling and got up, walking to the door. He opened it to see a man with broad shoulders holding a younger man's arm tightly.
"Hey … uh … Esher here wanted to drop by and see you guys," Shingi muttered. Jakey grinned and dragged them in.
"Man, it's good to see you guys. Sal, we're gonna need more fajitas! Esh and Metalhead are here!"
"Esher not see kitty and teh glowy man for long tyme! Hear you am back, is now dancy tyme!" Esher might have been grinning, but his expression was hidden behind his bandit scarf and the goggles that protected his ultra photosensitive eyes.
"Sally and Muse are here too."
"Teh Salleee and teh singy man!" Esher bounced into the living room, leaving Shingi to look at Jakey awkwardly.
"Good to have you back," he muttered. Jakey grinned at him, taking his hand and shaking it.
"Good to be back. I tell you, we really could have used you out there. It was mayhem. Voids and vampyrs and crazy storms and Venji busting his way out of a volcano and Sally trying to take on everything that moved by herself and baby-sitting some peacebringer kid and joining forces with a Council archon." Shingi nodded, half grinning.
"Sounds like fun."
"Sounds like 'crazy' you mean. Come on in." Jakey led him into the living room where Muse and Avenger waved, Esher already at the impressive sound system, positively misty-eyed over its capabilities. He turned on some loud, bouncy music to dance to and got right down to it. Shingi nodded to Avenger and Muse.
"Heard you had a crazy time."
"Just another day at the office," Avenger said, snuggling his lover gleefully. Shingi elected to take the completely unmatched armchair, sinking into it with a slight hiss. Jakey leapt onto his lap and sprawled over him and the arm of the chair, making himself comfortable in the way cats do. Shingi prised his kneading hands off his leg with a small yelp.
"Watch it, you crazy *******. I just got out of hospital," he grumbled. Jakey ignored him, as Shingi was always just out of hospital.
It wasn't another ten minutes before Sally came out of the kitchen, triumphantly bringing out huge bowls of crispy lettuce, salsa and chicken filler. The stack of fajitas rapidly diminished as the heroes all drew close around the coffee table that groaned under the weight of all the food. Jakey objected loudly when Shingi spilt salsa on his head, and Esher didn't stop his dancing, even while constructing over-full fajitas, spilling sauce and lettuce everywhere. Muse only glanced at the television on chance, then ducked to see it better under Esher's thrashing arms.
"J! Turn up the volume!" he flapped his hand at the remote. Jakey licked sauce off his wrist as he turned the volume up. The others all looked as their interest was drawn by the news story. A pretty woman was standing in Brickstown if the skyline behind her was anything to go by, in the distance, they could see the huge edifice that was the "Ziggurat", Paragon City's maximum security prison that specialised in super powered prisoners.
"- Officers of the Zigurski prison were left tied up in the prisoners cells, and there is still no clue as to how the break out was accomplished. Paragon City Police Department have released this video, taken by an off-site cctv camera, with a plea to all heroes to be vigilant for the escapees."
Muse's mouth dropped open as he leaned forward.
The video that replaced the reporter showed a large, crescent shaped craft descend onto the prison exercise yard. A ramp was lowered from its belly and a group of men raced from the prison, jumping and scrambling up onto it. One was distinctly large, and he stood by the ship, motioning with his arms for the men to run past him onto the craft, even helping to shove what was obviously a Council war wolf up onto the ramp. Only when all the men were on the craft did the big man turn and jump up himself. The ramp rose and blended back into the belly of the craft and then it turned on a dime and shot off up into the sky and to freedom.
"Wasn't that … Langlais?" Sally murmured. Muse, Avenger and Jakey all wore identical expressions of disbelief and after a moment, they all looked at each other. Nobody said it, because they felt guilty, but not one of them could suppress the feeling of delight and jubilation that their ex-Council team mate had escaped with all his men. It seemed that Stargazer was far from defeated.
"Well … he's going to be a bugger to put back behind bars," Muse murmured, grinning into his fajita.

---

Don't ask me about joining Honourable United, I'm lazy. Ask Captain Cathode.

http://www.onthejazz.co.uk/honu/

"If I had a punch, I would so hit that guy." - Millenium (because drinking nail varnish remover is for real men)