It's been awhile, hasn't it? Sorry about that. I do get busy... with what, you may ask? I'm sorry, I can't answer that just yet. Be patient.

Some time passed between the murder of The Charred Cheetah. I taught Mira's Final Warriors everything I had observed and experienced with the CCA. They had so many questions... but they were strong. They learned, in time. We began to pose as regular jammers, and invaded the Adventures. Being inside the game allowed me to do... certain things to the code of the world. We picked unsuspecting players to allow into our little glitch world. Our base wasn't supposed to exist, after all. However, to make sure they didn't talk about us, we put a block on their account, making it impossible to chat about us. The CCA couldn't know what we were planning.

Mira's Final Warriors grew. Okami, Nora and Huhn became my leading Officers. They each commanded a fourth of the organization, one's leadership belonging to myself.

But after all of that, there was still one thing I never fully understood. The Charred Cheetah never allowed me the knowledge of who I was carrying around with me. That shadowy bird-like dragon creature I had transformed into that day... It scared me sometimes.

But today, there was something I had to do.

"Hey, there you are Ma'am." Okami's voice called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Officer Okami." I greeted respectfully. "I have... something to ask of you. I need you to round up your section- whoever's players are offline. We're going on a little trip. It's time you saw one of them."

Okami's eyes widened. "They've summoned you again?"

I began to pad off, ready to assemble my section. "They know something's up. I don't think they know of us yet... which is why we have the element of surprise. We may be able to kill another."

Okami's section and mine walked to where I guided them; the cold Mt. Shiveer. I stopped right in front of the small, frozen lake, and turned to the gathered members.

"You may remember the rumors about this lake; that it would break and give you rare items. You may have learned that the lake would never actually break. Well... today is different. I want all of you to join me standing on this small piece of ice." I said, padding onto it and sitting patiently.

One by one, the members cautiously stepped onto the ice with me. Okami sat next to me.

"You're going to fail, you know." My unknown passenger sneered in my head.

I ignored it, and soon the ice began to crack on its own. The animals around me began to murmur, wondering if this was a good idea.

And, without warning, the ice shattered. We began to fall, down, down... it seemed like it would never stop.

"You know what to do, passenger." I said aloud. My body morphed into its other form and grew very large. I caught my fellow warriors and Okami on my back or in my clawed feet, gently floating down to the bottom. I released them and morphed back.

"You seem to be getting better at controlling this other consciousness, Ma'am." Okami noted.

I flashed a smile at my officer. "Damn right I am."

"You're not controlling me. We simply have a mutual relationship. I have no other choice but to help you- if you get yourself foolishly killed, I'm killed with you." It said, tone annoyed.

There was a sudden loud splashing noise, which rang out in the dark, cold space we had landed in. Silence settled in with my warriors.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A warrior team? Aren't the game's adventures enough?" A voice rang through the space.

"You and your kind need to be stopped. The adventures are for fighting phantoms, not you. Show yourself, vile creature, so I can do to you what I did to The Charred Cheetah." I hissed angrily, my fur bristling, becoming shadowy at the tips.

"Don't lie to yourself. If you could kill me so easily, you wouldn't have taken your cute little role player's group with you."

Sloshing through the water of the cave, a rhino appeared. His eyes were bloodshot red, his skin soggy and wrinkly. Water stuck to him. "Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am The Drowned Rhino."

My fellow warriors cringed with horror; water flooded from his mouth as he spoke.

"Drowned indeed." I said stiffly to him, then turning to my group. " I want you all to watch. Do not interfere. Okami, you too."

The Drowned Rhino laughed, bloody water spewing from his mouth. "What? Are you planning to kill me? You haven't even let me talk to you yet! Our leader is furious for what you've done to The Charred Cheetah. He almost ordered us to kill you; no mind the need for you. You should feel lucky that he changed his mind."

"Your leader is nothing but a coward. If he needs me so much, then why doesn't he come to me himself, huh?" I snarled.

The Drowned Rhino sighed. "I have no choice, do I? If it's a fight you want, that's what you'll receive."

I howled a war cry, and instantly morphed into the bird-dragon form. The Drowned Rhino rolled his bloodshot eyes and aimed his horns at me. I dived for him, and he dodged. I calculated his landing point and swung my long-feathered tail at him. I knocked him clean against the cave wall, and he fell to the floor. The cave walls were jagged and sharp, I could tell by the blood smears that he had been cut several times. He struggled to stand, I most likely broke some of his bones as well. His soggy skin was sliced and hanging off like bread slices, blood flowing from them. A shard of sharp rock had impaled itself into the right side of his head, forcing him to keep his eye shut.

"You... brat..." He huffed. "I never... liked you... but he does... which is why... I can't kill you..."

"I'm going to kill you, right here, right now." I said, and lunge at him once more.

I forgot that these little jerks had magic on their side, because he gave me a smirk, and suddenly I was knocked back by a large wave of cold water.

"You're too strong for me... but my superiors... are stronger..." He forced out. "Time for you... to leave my home..."

The Drowned Rhino summoned a giant wave, and we were all swept away. The water pushed us upwards, before we finally found ourselves back on Mt. Shiveer. We had come out of the seal cave that was always blocked off.

I morphed back to my Arctic Wolf body, and began to help my fellow warriors back on their feet.

"Now you know what we're up against. I hope you've learned much from this; you may not be able to escape another encounter with your lives." I said to them. "Okami will take you back to camp. I have some unfinished work to do."

I watched them leave, waiting for them to be out of range. I took a deep breath, and focused. My eyes glowed black, and my passenger's body manifested in front of me.

"There isn't many left of them for you to meet, you know. They know this too; they're planning something. They're going to do something big.. something terrible. Down let your guard down." My passenger said, its eyes switching from white to red and back.

"You know more than you let on... I will find out soon enough. We may work together fine, but secrets will harm our teamwork. You need to get over the secrets." I said to it.

"You're not ready yet. When the time comes, the secrets will come to you..." The passenger said, and the manifestation dissipated.

I sighed. Just another day in the war.