New Mission

It should have been an easy mission, only transport an USB-Drive from point A to point B, the only problem was to cross over the borderline and that was solved thanks to Mac creativity and Rileys technical Know-How without problems.

We just has to drive from South-Africa to Congo, that means 4300 miles trough steppe. There as well nothing extraordinary happened, we were bored and sweated like hell and asked ourselves why the hell couldn't we land in a neighbouring country of Congo? We had to stay on low profile, was Mattys answer to that exact question. Jack tried to talk back but was quickly silenced. That means the three of us, Mac, Jack and myself. We stopped to argue once she offer us to land in Cairo and take a plane from there to our final destination.

This would have spare us some days but the three of us didn't even like to think about Cairo so like hell we will sad a foot in that city ever again!

So we decided to drive from Gauteng (South-Africa) to Liari ( Republic of the Congo). It wasn't that bad we had enough of provisions, especially water and the view alone was worth the trip. At least for Mac and myself, Riley was a little scared to watch a pack of lions doze in the shadows of a lone tree while taking a break to wait for a satellite to be above us to check if we are still on the right way. Nobody wished to be lost in Africa.

At the night we slept all in the car. We two girls woke each other up to answer the call of the wild. I was sure both men noticed, but they were kind enough to not let us know. Once we crossed the borderline from Democratic Republic of the Congo we met our contact and handed over the USB-Drive. At the same moment the device left our procession a small hole became visible on the man's forehead. Jack pulled Riley behind a box into safety and Mac did the same with me.

"What the hell was on that thing?" Jack shouted over the noise of firing automatic rifles before he returned the favour with his handgun.

"I don't know, Matty warned me to not peak on it."

"That's really reassuring!" I murmured and put my bow together. Without that piece I didn't leave my apartment, not to mention my county to go on a mission, even on a so called 'easy' mission.

That's the reason why I hated those like the plague, on those always something went wrong and we ended up being shoot at!

"Diana... pass me some of your arrows!" Mac asked, I didn't even asked why I just handed him 5 of them. I always carried twenty with me and packed the materials to build at least 30 more. Thanks to Mac ended up with more... or none, it depends on Mac if he needed them to build something else to get us out of trouble or not.

Once he had my arrows he started to gouge the shaft.

"Di... I could need some help!" Jack complained and pointed at the guys with the assault rifles.

"I know." was all I said, a put two arrows on my bowstring and fired. Two guys died on the spot with a shaft in their neck.

"It's always amazing when you are doing that!" Jack jelled amused and shoot down an opponent as well.

"Ri screw the tips back on the shaft. Jack! I have to go over there!" Mac pointed at a bunch of trash.

"Don't get hit!" Jack and I shouted in unison and tried to cover Macs little stunt. We shoot like hell and within 10 seconds I use all my arrows, every one of them hit their mark.

The problem was... their were still ten guys with guns and they were using them! Not only me but Jacks runs out of ammunition as well, while the other seems to have those unlimited. Ri passed me five improved arrows. They were heavier, still wet and the shaft had a twist. I trusted Mac so I didn't try to figure out what exactly he did but shoot them.

Once I leaned a little bit out of cover to aim, a sudden pain exploded in my side.

"Ah..." I cried out, but I still shoot, but this time I missed my mark, the arrow hit the box where those guys hid behind. It exploded.

"DI..." Riley screamed and pulled me over to have a look at my wound.

"Don't worry nothing serious." I tried to calm her down.

"Diana..." Mac pushed me behind my cover again to have a closer look at the wound. It hurt like hell but I had to pull trough! And I could still use my bow.

"Belly shot... trough and trough, that's good." I pushed Macs hand away.

"See I told you so. We have to reach the car!" I cursed and shoot an explosive arrow again.

"Di..."

"MAC..." I jelled back, he swallowed but nodded shortly, he resumed tinker something and, of cause used my tips. "Once I tell you, you shoot at this bottle Diana. And run over to the car." no one of us talked back. In situations like this the only expert was Mac, especially when it comes to improvisation.

The bottle flew over our as well as our opponents heads.

"NOW" my arrow left my bowstring and hit true. The arrow exploded and fired the content in all directions, it was metal pieces.

I blinked for a moment, but Mac pulled me up and then further to the car. His hand pressed hardly on my side to stop the bleeding. Ri run a head to open the doors, while Jack covers us. The soldier jump on the driver seat once Mac and I hit the backseat. With squeaking tires we beat it.

"You build a fragmentation bomb?" Jack asked his younger partner taking a look over his shoulder while laughing loudly.

"How are she?" the next question was with worry in his voice.

"She loses a lot of blood, but no organ was hurt. Ri pass me..." he didn't had to ask Riley passed the first aid kit to Mac.

"God..." I cursed once the Mac used the alcohol to disinfect the wound and put on a printing compound. It sting like hell.

Riley used the opportunity to report to Matty.

She also asked for my well being. "I'm fine!" I said loud enough for her to hear.

"What about the drive?" She asked shortly after that. "Got it" I jelled again and holding out the USB Flash Drive to hand it over to Riley. Mac didn't hesitate and pressed me down again so my head rested on his lap.

"stop moving!" he warned me and added pressure on the wound.

"Alright, I send over the coordinates of the exfil. They will take you home... Riley destroy the device, the mission ends... we failed." the word 'failed' made all for of us jump.

"Does that mean our mission was a Failure?" we four asked at the same time. Nobody of us had a 'Fail' stamp on their cases. And would love to have it stay that way.

"No. it's not your fault, you hadn't all information. The guy you met up with was the new president of Congo, they wanted to introduce the democracy. The CIA looked for information about his opponent to ensure the victory of the man. Their cover was blown so we had to handover the drive. Don't worry I will pay those guys a visit and tell them what I think about my agents being shot at even it should have been save." Matty was as mad as we were.

Still, Riley did her job and destroyed all information and the drive as well.

The exfil team wasn't that far away, so that we were in the air after only 30 minutes. So my wound got treated seriously.

When I woke up from my anaesthesia the others were standing around my bed grinning down at me.

"How are you Di?" Riley asked out of her chair.

"As if someone played ping pong with my head." I answered with a pained hiss and sat up.

"Understandable. They had to give you a lot of the good stuff to make you sleep." jack laughed and removed some hair out of my face.

"When can I leave?" Mac laughed amused no one of us liked hospitals. Mac was the worst of us but no one wanted to lie down on a bed and wait for something to happen.

"Today. You are healing faster then they have estimated. Their is no infection or other complication with your wound, as long as you rest for a month you are free to go."

"A whole month?" it was unbelievable. I didn't want to stay home that long.

"Matty gave us holidays as well. That means us three. Riley still has to work."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked impatiently and started to change my clothes. Jack and Mac started to cough and turned around like two gentleman. I only rolled my eyes, everybody here saw me naked at least five times and I still wore my hospital gown and a sport bra. I finished once I wore one of Macs shirts and Rileys pants.

"Why didn't you bring my own clothes?" I asked curios. Even if I knew the answer already.

"We thought those might be a little to tight."

"I have something loose!" I played a little offended and looked down. Macs shirt was like a dress and Rileys pants where to long as well.

"Yeah... we found them, well those were... ehm... a little damaged. What the hell did you do with those? It looked like they were shredded while you were wearing them. There was so much blood."

Oh shit... that was something nobody should have found.

"Ehm... could we talk about that at home?" I asked unsure and looked at the door.

"For you to know... we burned them as safety measure." Ri grabbed my thinks. I massaged my temples. That will be fun. How the hell could I explain that most our enemies weren't as dead as we thought? My gaze wandered automatically to Mac, for some time I suspected Mac to be not as human as he wanted us to believe. Well, so I could talk with him without him sending me into a asylum if I was wrong.

But I couldn't change the fact that I have to tell them. I got my papers once the doctor looked over my wounds a final time. Now that I could see them as well, I doubted that it will take a month to heal completely a week was more likely.

To my surprise we didn't drive to my apartment but to Macs and Bozers house.

"That isn't the way to my apartment..." I was a little curious. Mac opened the door and helped me out of the car, to be more accurate he carried me. I could walk just fine, but Macs glare was enough to stop every try to say something against it. So I submit to my destiny to be watched for 24 hours a day.

"Yeah I figured as much... but we knew that you definitively won't let yourself rest for a whole month without being watched." Jack said when he closed the car.

"You aren't doing that ether! You guys don't even go to a doctor if we others won't drag you there!"

"Yeah... but we aren't a 16 year old girl with bloodied clothes in her closet!" Jack responses sharply. A sign he switch into Dad-Mode and will stay in it until I'm completely healed.

"Look at it from a positive side: Bozer will keep you company the whole time, read every wish from your lips, standing in the kitchen cooking your favourite food while behaving like your mother." Mac explained with a mean grin on his lips.

Now I know what he was a fox, definitively!

But to telling the truth I earned that grin. On our last mission he sprained his ankle. Something trivial, not even worth to mention in our job, but I told Bozer that Mac shouldn't put much weight on his foot for at least a week. Bozer, being a mother hen since birth, payed very close attention to him not doing anything except sitting on their couch watching TV and using his crutches to go to the bathroom.

"So that is your revenge I assume?" I sighed. Macs grin turns only a little softer, so the answer was probably a yes.

Bozer waited for us in the kitchen with a fixed table and couch that had my name printed on it. Surrendering to my fate I let Mac help me walk to the table and with the chair.

Bozer was really a helicopter mother, I just needed to choke on something to cause him running to my side asked if something was wrong. Mac found a new hobby in teasing me with his jogging, telling me how nice it felts to have a calm breakfast after a run. I nearly jumped happily as I heard my phone ring with Mattys picture on the screen.

Before Bozer could even react or Mac could cross the distance from the door I had the phone on my ear.

"Matty? Wait a moment I put you on speaker Jack, Mac and Bozer a with me." I said and put the phone down on the table in front of me.

"I'm really sorry, I know the doctor said one month but I need all of you in the war room ASAP." with just that Matty ended the call.

"Yes!" happy I jump up from the couch, the couch was comfortable but not for such a long time. My wound was really completely healed a round scare was all that was left from the bullet.

"Was it that awful with us?" Bozer asked with Mac behind him, Jack came over as well and sat down on the couch to took a short glance at my mobile phone. All of them made a sad face, so stopped with my happiness and coughed with shame.

"What... No...that's not it. This is my home. Even if it is your house this is the place where I feel the most comfortable, relaxed and calm. You are my family, did you forget you guys brought me here and raised me into what I am now." I said a little shy, I wasn't used to talk about my feelings especially at that scale.

"Awwwww, that was sweet come here let me hug you!" Bozer cried with teary eyes and pulled me into a tied embrace. Jack and Mac seems happy about my answer as well. They nodded and smiled in my direction.

"You're damn right! We are a big family so ya can talk with us about anything... but with the girly stuff... please go to Ri." Jack said still laughing, we other rolled our eyes when we heard the last part. He stood up up and massaged my shoulder a little.

"Matty is waiting." I broke free from Bozer and followed Jack out of the room, Mac and Bozer close behind.

I was happy both guys were normal again. I couldn't talk about the bloody shirt and how that happened, they accepted it once I threatened them that I would just leave. I still had to promise them I will eventually tell them once I am ready for it. The problem was I couldn't shake off the feeling that moment was closer then I liked.

Matty and Ri waited for us in the war room, together with some agents whose name I forgot. They left once we entered.

It was a little unsettling to see Matty turning on the white glass instead of the normal and offered us a seat. She sat down as well and nodded at Riley. The young woman use her laptop to control the board on the wall.

"We've got a problem. For the last to years a school was victim of several attacks. Students vanished without a trace, a whole pile of unsolved cases despite a skilled sheriff and a bunch of armed lunatics who shoot at High-School students."
"oh no..." I whispered without Matty noticing, but that doesn't count for Mac. He looked at me in curiosity and that caused the others to look at me as well.

"What is it?" Jack asked his college and glanced at me moving around on my chair.

"Nothing, I just can't believe that they are shooting students."

"The FBI took a look at it, but didn't found anything. They changed the sheriff but made things worse. The FBI could do anything to stop it and didn't find the cause. They asked for our help. I had send over a team, it didn't took long for them to return, terrified. I wanna know what makes a perfectly trained spy into a shivering mess!" We could see the nervousness in her face, and with reason.

"That's the reason why I send my best agents to Beacon Hills. Diana I now you are off duty for still one week and would like to keep you at home but..."

"No. I have to go. The others will die without my help. Nobody in this agency is better suited for this job than us. That's involving myself."

...Silence

The room was completely silent,nobody dared to breath, all except for Mac look at me in shock. No wonder I snubbed my superior and my ton was more serious as well.

"What... are you implying, Diana?" Mattys voice was calm, emotionless and icy.

"Before I tell you guys what's happening in Beacon Hills I don't want that it's recorded. Nothing what I say will leave this room, no word of it will be spread to the outside and I want you to listen first and then judge." I demanded I made clear I mean it.

Matty seams to try to stare me down, but after five minutes she gave up on it and nodded. Fine!

"Very well. I really hope I could keep you guys out of this world." I sighed and continued.

"Well at least I tried as much as I could, but even after five hundred years there are places that lure the supernatural. Beacon Hills is that kind of place. There is a Nemeton an ancient tree that bonds magic of the world. There aren't much of them left in the world and the one in Beacon Hills were a sleep for the last decades, sadly that changed last year. A druid used a dark ritual and disturbed his slumber. A tree responsibly for the balance between nature and magic got tainted and changed into a bait for everything that can sense the supernatural. Last year..."

"Magic? Supernatural? A dark ritual? Are you sure you didn't take to much pain killers or banged your head at the last mission?" Jack asked amused and tried to touch my forehead to feel my temperature.

Surprisingly it was Mac who stopped him.

"She asked us to listen, please at least do that until she's finished."

"Come on Mac. That's crazy!"

"We are talking about Diana, do you remember when we first met her? I don't think a normal 12 year old girl is able to threw an adult man 10 meter wide!" he reminded his partner and threw a warning glare in my direction.

"Sorry Mac, but I can't keep up that charade, not when we are going to Beacon Hills.I really did my best to keep that world away from you." I sighed I snipped my fingers.

I could almost feel how their eyes jumped out of their sockets.

Well, I can't blame them. All in this room knew me as a 1,63 tall, black haired, 16 years old teenager with green eyes and an incredible skills with her bow and hunting down every living creature.

Now, I wasn't a teenager any more, but a grown woman with matched curves around waist and chest. I was as tall as Jack, had green eyes like emeralds and curling red hair, and in my hands a bow with the image of a living soul inside.

Mac jumped on his feed immediately baring his teeth protecting the other humans in this room. He was surrounded by a yellowish aura with glowing orange eyes. That on the other hand scared the others even more. Jack shoved Riley, Bozer and Matty behind him drawing his weapon unsure if he should really point it at one of us.

I flinched when I saw that, Mac as well. We could understand his reaction but it still hurts. Mac and I could barely react in time to stop Matty calling for help, to be sure Riley didn't do it as well I closed her laptop.

"You promised to listen! And please Jack pull away your gun, it kind of hurts seeing you pointing it at us." I remembered them and sat down again, Mac followed my example and sat down too. It was gesture Jack understood, he sighed and put his gun away. Every one of the others preferred to stand.

Maybe they thought they would be faster then us, well in my case they were right, but they couldn't outrun Mac. Hell he could burn down the whole building.

"What are you guys?" Bozer gasped not trying to hide that he was starring at us as if we were two exotic beings, well we probably are in his eyes.

I sighed again and drank a sip of water. "You already started explained, so you can continue. I think I can't hide any more. Thanks to you I'm exposed as well." Like me Mac wasn't happy about this at all.

"Well... Mac is a kizune. A Japanese fox spirit. Even I rarely met one, but all of them had one in common. They were all freaking intelligent, fought with their head, normally they didn't need their supernatural powers. But they are powerful being which are nearly godlike, when full grown. It is hard to imprison a fox and nearly impossible to keep him inside said prison." all of us were looking at Mac for moment, seeing the same as me they moved their shoulders. Mac just rolled his eyes massaging his temples.

"Okay so Mac is a fox, not really surprising, what are you?" Bozer asked, he was the first one finding his speech again. He looked as if he want to jump around like a little kid.

"I didn't lie to you. I'm Diana."

"Hell yeah... as if." that was Jack, he was still sceptical about the whole thing.

"But I have other names as well. I was named Diana from the Romes, Artemis in Greek, the Japanese called me Yama no Kami, Mahit from the Egypt and Flidaîs from the Celtic." The room was complete silent again while they tried to process all those names. Riley made it simple she just turned on her laptop and asked the world wide web. Once she found something she put it on the board for all to see.

"Diana, you don't wanna made us believe you are the goddess of hunting!" jack murmured reading the information. Matty was silent all over the time until now.

"Well that's explains a lot."

"What?" all of us even me were shocked. I thought Matty was the first one calling for a psychologist.

"It would explain why she is that good at hunting. A 16 year old teenager manages to find every trail I put her on and why she travels back to your places of mission."

"Wait... why did she flew back?" jack asked his boss curiously.

"I've no idea, asked her yourself." every pair of eyes were resting on me again.

"Some of our opponents weren't as dead as they seemed to be. Some beings need more than a bullet in their chest or heavy burns. Do you remember the serial killer in India? Well that was a Wendigo, a human was forced to eat their comrades to survive due to a catastrophe or a an accident. The human flesh make him stronger but my sister curses everything that goes against nature, cannibalism is something like that. So those humans turns into beings that can only feed on human flesh, getting eaten by his own children as fate."

"Wait, then why didn't he take a bite out of Mac when they caught them He didn't turn into a dish." now their eyes kept wandering between Mac and me.

"Because I'm a Kizune. I can made fox fire. A fire that is able to burn everything except me. If I had known he was a Wendigo I would have used it at the beginning." Mac frowned touching the little scar on his neck.

"I hadn't known as well at the beginning. Only when one of his guys broke into my apartment promising me to season me well I got what they really were. So I burned them until nothing remains." That was really disturbing.

"Okay what trashed you shirt?" this time it was Riley who asked. She was still hesitating to believe everything, but was interested nevertheless.

"That was a berserk. Something that was created by my brother in law Seth. A war beast for his war against Horus." once the name left my lips a text in Egyptian appeared on the screen.

"God of calamity and chaos... really a guy easy to like." murmured jack looking in my direction again.

"So you're really a goddess?" he asked still doubtful, I nodded.

"But you don't want us to knee down shivering in awe?" I couldn't hold it any more and started laughing, a freeing happy laugh.

"No jack, I was serious earlier. You guys became my family, you guys taught me what it meant being a human. You already knew who I was now you what I am. I really wished to keep you out of this mess. But going to Beacon Hills without knowing everything is a suicide mission. Mac and I will teach you everything you need to know until we leave. Just that, I was in that town one year ago, it felt like I stood in a nest of supernatural. At this place there are werewolves, werecat, wendigos, a hell hound, kizunes, banshees and the Eichenhouse. An asylum with a special section for supernatural being, who all caused some kind of problems for humans. This mission has the potential to be worse than Cairo."

"We don't talk about Cairo!" Mac and Jack shouted in unison.

"Right. We don't talk about Cairo, so this should apply for Beacon Hills as well. Matty when do we depart?" I laughed and turned back to the girl the other knew.

"In one hour. Not so fast Diana, why are you with us?" that was question a was waiting since I told them I being a goddess.

"I am here because I believe in what we're doing is right. I am the goddess of hunting, I hunted everything there is in the fauna. I punished a poachers because they killed my animals, but I never thought of the reason why they are doing this. Of cause some humans kills just for fun, but there are also people who doesn't have an other choice. I realised that hunting down the poachers won't do anything good. The boar or dew stayed dead, nothing changed when I killed those criminals. But something will change when I hunt those who caused other people to poach out of hunger. Furthermore there is nothing more dangerous for my friends than a war. A few hundred years ago I could afford to look away but nowadays... a single wrong decision can cause a war that destroys everything I stand for. The hunt, the wild, the nature and fertility. The Phoenix Foundation tries to stop a war before it breaks out, we stop terrorism, war crimes, and mass murder. When I met Jack and Mac I saw a huge potential. So I decided to stand by their side, protect them and help them reach their goals, so that I can stand before my father, to tell him humanity earned the right to be respected even from us gods, that they should have a free will and faith."

"Your father? I thought your were an orphan." Jack asked curiously.

"No I've a father and a mother as well. My mother is Leto and my father Zeus. It isn't a great idea to fill in those names as family members. Normally you end up in a psychiatry"

"True..." murmurs Mac and carded his blond hair.

"Ok that means I have an hour to prepare you for this mission." I murmured and massaged my forehead.

"Mac will you help me? I need to go back into my apartment to get something." my gaze wandered to my college. He nodded while grinning at jack, Bozer and Riley.

"I have the feeling I will lose more than my mobile phone." Jack looked at his foster daughter and Boze, the gaze of all three of them switched between me and Mac.

"Well, supernatural training for beginners... ehm... every supernatural being is stronger and faster than any human. Until I get back you guys train with Mac to get a feeling for it and reflexes. A kizune is slow to some other creatures but they are much times more clever and can still outruns every human." Well the rest was up to Mac, I knew he will use the chance to tease them a little, but that would only do them good. I asked Matty to lend me a driver, to my surprise she drove me herself.

She was silent the whole way to my flat, she didn't came inside, but waited in her car.

Maybe I was a goddess, but my boss scared me sometimes, especially when she was mute all the time like now. That's the reason why I hurried up and was back in five minutes. Afte ten more minutes I was with the others in the training room, sitting on the ground as far away from mac possible and called the other three over.

"Mac stay away, I have some thing in here that will hurt you." I warned him when he started to move as well.

"Wolvesbane?" he asked and sat down on a chair on the other end of the room.

"Yeah... that too." That seems to be enough for Mac to leave the room.

The last half an our I used to explain as much as possible. Especially how they could protect themselves with mountain ash. To Jack I handed over some magazines that consisted out of silver bullets filled with a lot of monkshood.

"Be careful with those, I don't have much more bullets prepared and tinkered them myself and it consumes a lot of time. Those bullets are deadly for human and supernatural only use them for non humans. And please take spare weapon for your spare weapon with you. Beacon Hills I never thought we would be send there." I sighed and gave the other two some small jars filled with mountain ash. I explained in every detail how to use it and what it could do, so I was sure they won't waste it.