APRIL

April walked up to the front doors of Marco's, confirming they were locked. She'd chosen to arrive before opening in the hopes that they could get a look around with the place empty. Thus far, watching the comings and goings and hacking their computers wasn't sufficient. A sweep of the interior might illuminate some fresh leads.

She turned to face Sappho and Karai, prepared to seek out a good spot to break in at the back when a mongoose mutant came around the corner.

Noticing they were there, he slinked over to them with a friendly smile that rang false to her. "Hello, ladies. We're closed right now, but if you're hoping to schedule a bachelorette party, I can help you out. We've got private rooms and a variety of exotic dancers to suit every taste." He paused, eyes roving over them hungrily. "Or were you looking for work here? I can also arrange auditions."

"With Marco?" She asked innocently.

He nodded, the dynamic of power already shifting as they moved from potential customers to potential employees in his mind. "Of course. The boss approves all our dancers. Quality control. Not that I think any of you will have a problem."

Distasteful as it was, that seemed the most promising path. She required an audience with this Marco as he seemed to be the treasure trove of information she required.

"That would be great. When do you think we could set that up?" She sensed Karai tense behind her. But they'd known each other long enough to forge a bond of trust, and Karai didn't voice her objections. Sappho remained as inscrutable as ever.

He grinned. "We've got some time now. You can call me Sid. This way, ladies."

As she followed him, she tried to put her finger on exactly what it was that unsettled her about him. More than just her intuition, which raised its own alarms, something was wrong with him. Something subtle, just a little bit off, but too unmistakably 'not right' to ignore. Like a personal vibe version of the visual uncanny valley.

He took them in through the employee entrance and led them to a large room, filled with tacky, old, lit-mirror vanities, covered in mismatched heaps of make-up, fake lashes, hair products and other cosmetics. The back walls were lined with racks upon racks of tasteless, pseudo-clothing and cheap, uncomfortable-looking heels.

Sid spread his arms wide, showing off the space. "This is where the magic happens. Why don't you pick something off the racks and doll up a bit? I'll get Marco. Decide amongst yourselves who goes first. When the music starts, go through that curtain to the pole-dancing stage and show off your best moves." With a wink, he ducked out.

Karai turned to April. "Not that I can't play sultry, but we're not actually doing this, are we?"

April gave her a sardonic look. "Shell no. When the music starts, we'll go out, as we are and have a word with the owner of this fine, upstanding establishment. If possible, I'd like to do so without interruption."

Karai laughed. "I think that can be arranged."

Sappho gave a quiet smile and nodded.

And so, they waited. Then the music began to play.

The three of them pushed through the curtain and strode out onto the stage, at the foot of which lounged a pig mutant in a business suit. Porker must be this Marco they'd come to see.

Sid stood up from his seat beside Marco. "Ladies, I think you might have been unclear on the instructions, but you're supposed to come out in costume and one at a time. We do have group acts, but we're evaluating individual talent now."

April marched to the edge of the stage. "No, you were perfectly clear. But we haven't come to dance. I've got a few questions for you and, one way or another, I'm getting my answers."

Marco snapped his fingers and the guards she sensed earlier stepped out of the shadows along the walls of the dimly lit room. Four on each side, mostly humans armed with guns and knives as far as she could tell, though two had the distinct feel of hybrids, despite their human appearance and one was obviously a lizard mutant of some type, iguana perhaps.

"Looks like you bit off more than you can chew." Marco smirked, boasting

April smiled. "I really haven't." Then she whipped out her tessen and flung it, catching Sid in the shoulder, watching him stagger back with a yelp as she telekinetically recalled it like a boomerang.

Karai and Sappho peeled off from her sides to deal with the guards and she focused on the fight in front of her.

With a snarl that had more theatre than feeling to it, Sid pulled a bowie knife and came at her, jumping up onto the stage. Fast. A normal person probably couldn't track his movements, but her intuition warned her where to block and her folded tessen kept each blow in his flurry of strikes from landing.

He was a decent knife fighter, she'd give him that, but not much else.

As she flicked away a rapid stab, she darted in ramming a knee into his solar plexus.

He doubled over, gasping for breath and she smacked his knife from his hand with her tessen, pulling her dragon-emblazoned dagger to come around the side and hamstring him. Not so fast now.

Leaving him to clutch at his bleeding leg, she flicked the blood from her dagger before sheathing it as she strolled up to Marco, who looked considerably less complacent than he had a moment ago.

"What the hell are you?"

She stopped in front of him. "I'll ask the questions."

Behind her, eyes glazed over and blank, Sid sat up, pulling out a gun and training it on her.

Then Karai, having left a trail of unconscious bodies in her wake, appeared behind him and clapped a hand on his shoulder. A hand that shifted into the head of a snake, sinking its fangs into his flesh.

Sid's eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped.

In that moment of distraction, Marco jumped to his feet and tried to run, only to smash into Sappho and bounce back off her solid frame.

Now Marco was the only one left awake and functional.

Sappho picked him up, one-handed, and spun him around, pinning his arms behind his back in a joint-lock.

Marco looked around, wild-eyed, for a way out.

April stepped up in front of him, reaching for her power to press against the defenses of his mind.

"Why don't you start by telling us everything you know about Essence?"

DREA

"That was a great lesson, Andrea, thank you." Layla, one of the cheerleaders, waved as Andrea collected her duffel, pleased with yet another class. She waved back, telling the girl she'd see her next week.

Her classes were growing bigger by twos and threes every time she taught, both at the school and at the dojo. Not only the self-defense program she'd started, but the three beginner classes she was getting paid to teach as well. She loved teaching, more than she'd expected. Her students were happy, responded well to her and apparently the parents of the little kids were pleased enough to tell their friends. Before she knew it, her classes were full and Uncle Leo was asking if she wanted more. Andrea Hamato had found her thing. She smiled as she made her way to the gyms side exit. Life was good.

But as she pushed the door open, revealing the side alley between the school and the next building, Andrea ground to a halt. What was she seeing? The normally clean-ish alleyway was littered with bodies. Male, she identified by build, counted nine, some writhing, others motionless. A tenth form, not in black garb lay among them- mutant. And rigid. Oh gods. Was he dead?

Tugging the zipper on her bag, she reached for a pair of sticks she'd taken to carrying. Just in case. As she inched further into the alley, closer to the mess, she realized the mutant was a raccoon; and very much dead. Her eyes swept the space, in case anyone moved, although that didn't seem likely. She noticed something reflecting sunlight on the ground. Upon closer inspection she bent over, picking the object up. There was another beside it, she grabbed it as well. "Oh, shit. Oh. Shit. Oh. Shit." Shoving the tiny nunchaku, and ASL charms in her pocket she fished out her phone. Her hands shook as she attempted something as simple as speed dial. "Come on, Chane. Pick up!"

JEM

Spooning sauce over the dough, Jem sighed. "This has to be the most boring repeat-o date ever by now."

Mimi giggled as she reached for the cheese. "Well we did break the rules." She shrugged. "I kinda like making pizzas with you though. We get to try out new topping combinations all the time. No wonder your dad loves it so much."

Jem grabbed a handful of green olives. "Yay or nay?"

Her little nose wrinkled. "Meh. Nay. But black olives sound good. Grab some of those."

He sprinkled them across the top, until she held up her hand then pointed to the green peppers. Between Mimi and a lifetime with his dad's bizarre creations, Jem wasn't sure how many topping combinations were left to come up with. He glanced toward the office where his mother was doing something businessy. She had him on lockdown, like even his dad wasn't currently an acceptable chaperone. But then she kind of had him on lockdown too. Apparently, his crashing their date wasn't tragic enough, his mother had scolded his dad for letting them finish the movie at all. Then his mom went and actually said his dad was going to have to work on his disciplining.

CHANE

Chane had spent most of the day searching her memory for anything she should be worried about becoming public. Anything she could come up with wouldn't be useful to her opponents because they were reluctant acts consistently paired with her mother's irresponsibility. Now that she was reflecting on it, her life was actually rather boring. That was surprisingly disappointing.

Even spreading out to her family, there wasn't much fodder. Who would have ever thought that she'd be glad for Uncle Leo's obsessive paranoia keeping their family on a low profile.

Not that it mattered. Nothing was technically stopping her opponents from lying and making shit up. Even if she disproved it, the damage of rumoring it in the first place would already be irreparably done.

Hopefully this wouldn't splash back too hard on her family. Scout and Drea had been through enough and she really didn't want to screw Nik, Shen and Jem's rising stardom. Was she doing the right thing?

She was still a few blocks off from the dojo when her phone rang. Drea? "Hey, is everything ok?"

"No. Scout got in a fight and I stumbled across in the aftermath." Drea's voice sounded shaky. "There were a bunch, but most are gone now."

Chane frowned. "Most?"

Drea swallowed hard. "There's two dead guys."

Dead? Shit.

She forced her voice calm. "Where's Scout?"

"I don't know. Gone." Drea's voice wavered.

"Hang on. I'll call her."

Slamming a door shut on the part of her already freaking out, Chane ended the call and dialed Scout, their phones programmed to video-call her number. Straight to voicemail. Or whatever Scout's equivalent was with Uncle Donnie's software converting voice to text, an inverse of the program he made for Nik.

Not good.

Scout, per terms of her drug recovery, was to keep her phone on and charged at all times so that she could always answer when her parents called. It should not be going straight to voicemail.

Something was wrong.

Her fingered hovered over Uncle Leo's number. But she didn't select it.

What if there were extenuating circumstances? What if doing this ruined everything Scout had worked so hard for? If she hadn't been so callous towards Scout's feelings before perhaps she could have forestalled the Essence disaster.

No. They couldn't spill this until they'd spoken to Scout.

Instead, she sent a group text to the cousins.

Emergency meeting about Scout. Park by the pizzeria. Now.