Interlude: A moonlit Romp
The MacFinn manor was, in one word, imposing. Set on the outskirts of Chicago, Its gardens were better described as a forest. The building looked old, made out of stone and thick wooden beams, and it was the type of building that, had it been less well kept, would probably be designated as haunted by the townspeople.

The house, and its surroundings, was also protected by an imposing fence of metal and stone.

"You absolutely sure about this Green?" Olivia asked, still looking at the building through the gap in the fence.

The area was dark, and lacked streetlamps, but it was wealthy enough not to attract any attention from the seedy underbelly of Chicago. Hell, if the rumours were to be believed, half the people in that seedy underbelly lived within a few blocks of this place. But the moon was full, and the stars were bright, and a lack of attention served Olivia and her impromptu gang just fine.

"Like I said, Harley is always out of town during the full moon, my mom says everyone knows that. He probably has some sort of crazy religion that means he's having naked sexytimes under the moonlight with his cult or something," Judy replied.

Judy, or Miss Green right now, came from one of the wealthier families in Chicago, and from what Judy had told her, one that was intimately involved in secret societies like that. Then again, secret societies were apparently really fucking boring in real life, involving old people getting together and exchanging secret handshakes.

"Yeah, but, security systems? I mean, he's rich right?" Pink, better known as Molly Carpenter, asked from behind the pink hood she was wearing.

"From what I've read online, the place is haunted, with crazy monsters guarding the mansion, people keep talking about seeing some sort of beast looking at them from the shadows behind the fence," Jane, the resident computer nerd, wearing a yellow hood, said.

"Cape security?" Judy asked.

"If so, I can take them," Olivia replied. "Now, enough talking, let's do this."

Olivia's hand went to her head, and she pulled down her metal mask, decorated with a crazy lopsided smile and two little antennas. The smile was because it was awesome, the antennas were to distract any enemies. The idea was that they'd think she was controlling her minions with them, instead of with her mind.

She held her hand forwards, and touched the fence when she saw something moving on the other side, and two feral eyes looking straight at her. For just a second, she flinched, and her compatriots followed her example.

Once she looked again, the eyes were gone, nowhere to be seen.

"Did you see that?" she asked.

"What? Is someone coming? Did you see something?" Molly asked.

"No, don't think so. It was probably nothing, just my fucking nerves."

For the second time, she touched the fence. And this time, she unleashed her power, winding through the iron bars of the fence.

Her power worked with single object, however those were defined. In this case, her power thought the iron of the fence was clearly separate from the stone base. It didn't matter, one section was enough.

The iron started bunching together, changing shape by bending and breaking. The process was a bit slower than it was with cars, seeing as the entire thing had no moving parts, but within five seconds, she had a minion made out of cast-iron bars. It wasn't much, but even this thing would thoroughly beat any human interloper that tried to attack them.

Plus, there was a gap in the fence now.

"Come on, let's go through before anyone sees us," Judy said, jumping over the knee-high stones, running for the manor. Olivia, not one to be outdone by one of her minions, joined her, running for the side of the manor. Behind her, she heard the other girls rustling through the undergrowth.

In about half a minute, they'd reached the side of the manor, hidden on all sides by trees, shrubbery and fencing. From up close, the building seemed even bigger.

"So… what do we do now boss?" Molly said, half-joking with the boss part.

"We get inside," she replied, holding her hand to a promising looking wall.

Her power almost immediately told her that the wall was too big, seeing as how it was counted as part of the superstructure of the building itself. Annoyed, Mockshow started walking around the building, looking for a way in.

"Over here," Red called out, and Olivia ran to her position, her metal minion on her heels, immediately noticing why Red had called out when she came closer.

There was a large glass wall, probably added in the last few decades, and behind it, an indoor pool.

"Fucking Jackpot!" she said, touching the glass. This time, it did work, and the glass started folding in on itself, half melting, half breaking without shattering. Olivia was only dimly aware of the sound of the other girls splashing into the pool, she was creating art.

Sure, cars were fun, big, and easy, and yesterday night's project had looked amazing, mostly due to the multi-coloured nature of the source materials, but she'd never actually tried glass before. The way it was half-fluid, the way in which its movements were more organic than mechanical, it was fascinating.

This was why she didn't see the alcohol until Molly held a glass in front of her nose.

"Yuck, what's that?" she asked.

"Irish whiskey, there's an entire bottle of it," Molly said. Olivia looked over her assembled minions, most of which had dropped the colour scheme in favour of getting half naked and jumping into the pool. Then, she grabbed the glass, and chucked it back before she could regret it.

"I wish Katherine was here, she'd love this," Judy said from the water.

Katherine, better known as Grace. She'd been a part of the group for a while, most of it before Olivia had joined them. When she'd gotten powers, she'd decided to join the fucking white hats, and had invited the rest of them to the party.

The amount of goody-two-shoeing boringness she saw in that one meeting was enough for Olivia to decide that she wasn't going to do anything like that with her powers, and ever since Grace had joined the wards, she had been completely boring.

Feeling the liquid courage of the whisky, Olivia kicked off her shoes and socks, and took of her pants, so that only the leather bodysuit, which covered about the same stuff as a swimsuit, remained. Then, she ran forward, and jumped, making a massive splash, almost immediately followed by two even larger ones, courtesy of her minions. Sure, they weren't as big as they could be, but they were still heavier than a teenage girl.

***

Tonight's outing, Olivia thought, had been a success. Sure, half her minions were drunk, but that had been the idea from the start.

Okay, maybe not the alcohol, but the rest of it? Partying in some rich idiot's house? It had been fucking awesome.

She looked at her other minions, the ones that weren't friends, but just telekinetic robot thingies, or was that racist? The one made from the iron fence looked like a dog, or some other four-legged creature, with long metal bars extending from it that worked as weapons, as well as climbing tools. Right now, it was standing on the wall, something which only worked because of how small it was.

The other one, the creature she'd made out of glass, was sitting right next to her. This one wasn't analogous to any real creature; instead, it was more like it rolled, with pieces telekinetically kicking out to get it rolling. It would probably be even more useless in a fight, but it looked cool. She pushed it forward, rolling it towards the row of cupboards in the kitchen. There had to be some snacks somewhere in this mansion, right?

As the creation approached the cupboards, she made it slash out with a shard of glass, breaking open two cupboards. She looked at the contents, and saw that it was nothing but a whole lot of dried meat and expensive dog food. Weird, there hadn't been any other signs of dogs in the house, so what was that all about?

Her line of thought was interrupted by screaming. It was a girl's voice, coming from deeper inside the house.

Molly, Pink, she'd gone exploring beyond just the kitchen and the pool.

Olivia, Mockshow, rushed into action, she mentally told her two minions to get moving, and ran for the kitchen block herself, touching it, and spreading out her power.

Luckily, it counted, and she twisted the metal, stone and plastic with her mind, creating a larger, sturdier creature. It was something that would actually stand up in combat.

Then she made her way further into the building. Behind her, the large minion followed, trying to push its way through the hallways. When it didn't fit, it made room.

After two hallways, she bumped into Molly, or rather, Molly bumped into her.

"What's wrong?" Olivia asked.

"I just figured out why nobody ever sees MacFinn during the fullmoon, he's a fucking werewolf!" Molly replied.

Yeah, right, a werewolf. Molly had probably spotted the dog and freaked out at the sight of it.

"Where?"

"Down there, there's a hidden room," she said, still trembling, and pointing at a small spiral staircase.

"If this is a joke, you're calling me boss for a week," Mockshow replied.

Nonetheless, she went down the narrow staircase, and entered the basement.

The basement itself looked like it was a big storage room. She thought she spotted wine barrels, gardening equipment, and a whole lot of old furniture and stuff. In the corner stood an absolutely massive TV, made bigger by the fact that it wasn't a flatscreen. It was dusty, and it didn't look like they used it a lot. Mockshow looked around, and spotted what Molly had meant. An iron door, hidden in the corner of the basement, had been left open, probably by a screaming Molly, running upstairs as fast as she could.

She checked that all three of her minions were present, and walked towards the door. She heard the sound of claws scratching concrete, and what sounded like panting. Seemed like mister MacFinn preferred to keep his dogs locked up in the basement.

As she reached the door, she saw the dog in the dim light of the basement lamps behind her.

It was a big doggy. A really big doggy.

Jane had once shown the rest of them movies of a girl that had been active in Brockton Bay, a really badass villain whose power worked on dogs. She made them as large as a minivan, covered in muscle and bones, and she didn't take shit from anyone. Hell, her cape name had been Bitch, although the idiots over at the Protectorate demanded everyone call her Hellhound.

Those dogs had looked big. This one? This one looked bigger.

She took a step to the side to let her minions through, and ran up the stairs.

"Girls! It's time for plan GTFO!" she yelled.

At first, her friends just looked at her, having thought Molly was just overreacting to something. Then, a loud snarl was followed by the sound of glass crashing into concrete, followed by the sound of half a dozen teenage girls running for their lives.

She was about to run after them when she heard a second crash, and a third, and then the sound of stonework crumbling. The giant dog-thing had destroyed her little critters, and was working its way out of the concrete room.

She ran through the house, idly touching large object here and there. A grand piano, a dinner table that was way too large for anything but a medieval banquet, and two exercise treadmills, one of which was strangely large.

What she was looking for however, was something else. Something that every wannabe rich guy supervillain was contractually obliged to have. She just didn't know where it would be.

Her search was interrupted by the sound of things fallen down, followed by a claw tearing through one of the doors leading into the room she was in.

The wolf-beast-thing appeared behind the door, murder on its face. It was snarling, with drool dripping from its overly large teeth.

With a thought, she commanded the grand piano to smash into it from the side, it's strings having taken the role of tendons. Before it could smash into the creature, it turned, and swiped at it with a claw, smashing right through the wood.

Worst thing was, it didn't even make a satisfying sound as it got crushed.

The piano was followed by a closet filled with china and silverware -which did sound exactly like it did in the movies- and Mockshow quickly animated the pool table she'd spotted in whatever the room she was in was called. Smoking room? Pool-playing room? Werewolf room?

Then, she feinted forwards with her animated exercise treadmill, before having it dodge away from the beast.

It snarled in anger, and dashed after it. She made it go as fast as she could while she ran in a different direction, and it smashed into the wall, followed by the angry wolf, which smashed through the wall, filling the room with clouds of dust.

It was angry, and unreasonably strong, but she could use that. It was just like a video game. She'd just have to make it dash through enough walls that eventually the building collapsed on top of it.

Problem was, the creature looked like it could survive that. Oh well, that was a problem for later. First, she needed to survive.

She made one of her smaller minions dash for one of the windows, breaking it, and she jumped after it, landing outside of the old manor. Then, she made her pool table charge the beast while she started circling the house.

Using her power on household objects was fun and everything, but this was a fight, and she needed something that worked better. Something big, sturdy and heavy, preferably lots of things.

She circled the house, hoping the noise made by the beast and her pool table didn't wake up any of the neighbour. It was still night-time, so they probably slept in, but you never knew, and she didn't want the Protectorate to show up and arrest her for fighting werewolves or some shit like that. Maybe the breaking and entering, whatever.

Behind her, she still heard the sound of the wolf-thing biting into things. Her minions there were out of her control, they'd been out of sight for too long and wouldn't do anything anymore, but the monster didn't know that, and was probably munching away on the piano, wondering whether it was really dead or not.

Passing the pool, Olivia took a quick look in the direction of the hole in the gate, and saw a girl dressed in red slip away, signalling to her that her friends had at least escaped. While looking there, in the direction of the trees, she also thought she saw something else, two eyes, between the trees, looking at her. Creepy, and not at all real. The werewolf was inside, not between the trees.

Eventually, she reached the driveway, and with it, the garage door. Just what she needed.

She touched the door of the garage, using just a little bit of her power, enough to make it open itself, and saw exactly what she needed.

MacFinn had been a rich guy, old money with a mansion and a freaky dungeon that he used for, well, for werewolf stuff. He also had a thing for the full moon, probably related to the whole werewolf thing. Being that rich and eccentric? If movies had told her anything it was that It could only one thing.

Car collection, MacFinn had an absolutely massive car collection. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Volkswagens, even a Jeep. Big, strong cars that would make for big, strong brutes. Minions that could stand up to the werewolf.

She walked up to the jeep, and worked her power on it, charging it with telekinetic energy, transforming it into a four-legged monstrosity, capable of smashing right through puny werewolves.

Just as she was about to finish that thought, the werewolf smashed through a wall, straight into the garage. It snarled and howled, and looked at her with its creepy eyes.

Didn't matter, this time, she was prepared. What had once been a large jeep meant for long excursions through shitty terrain was now best described as a steel Rhinoceros, and charging straight at the beast. It was prepared, and wanted to smash the car away like it had smashed away her piano. This time however, it was up against the massive bulk of a V8 engine. Or some other type of engine. Olivia didn't actually know all that much about cars, she just knew that all the coolest cars had V8's.

The metal rhinoceros ignored the werewolf's little bitch-slap, and rammed straight into it, sending it back into the hole through which it had entered the garage.

For good measure, Mockshow decided to grab two more cars. A red Ferrari, which she optimized for speed, and one of those large limousines, which she used for sheer bulk.

The werewolf, having thrown away the former jeep, came through its hole again, roaring at her, and while she commanded her new minions to catch its attention, she had her first minion stand up, and charged the beast from the back with it.

Caught off guard, the steel horn she'd put on the front pierced into the beast's flesh, and blood seeped out as it cried in range, picking up the Ferrari and throwing it at a wall. It started walking towards her, and Mockshow saw the wound the Jeep had created regenerate almost immediately.

She ran, not to the outside, but at a wall, and the beast followed her, using one arm to keep the Jeep at bay. Once there, she stood perfectly still, and started yelling at the beast, hopefully taunting it.

It seemed to work, and the beast stood still for a second before dashing forwards at great speed. Olivia waited, timed it, and just before the hairy thing could disembowel her, she had her Limousine-minion swoop past and grab her away.

The beast tried to stop itself, but only half managed to, and it crashed into the wall.

All around her, Olivia could hear the old house creaking and moaning, It obviously wasn't liking the fighting.

Before the creature could stand up again, the Ferrari crashed into it, and with it into the wall, creating another cloud of dust. Olivia, in the meantime, rearranged her current ride so that she could actually sit on it, and brought herself closer to a fourth car, animating that as well.

Again, the beast threw her minion through the room, and she could hear a splash of water. Huh, so that wall connected to the pool, interesting.

She told her mount to go outside, through the garage door, and noticed it was starting to become a even darker outside, the moon hidden behind the treeline. Again, she taunted the beast, and as it approached her, she made her mount jump upwards, on top of the building, clawing its way on the roof.

Behind her, three converted and battered cars crashed into the werewolf in quick succession. It bled, and it regenerated.

Well, that was going to be annoying, she thought. Maybe it had a limited pool of health it could use for regeneration? That would be useful.

The beast grabbed one of her minions, and this time, it decided to actually throw it at her. Now that she was mounted however, she easily managed to dodge it, although she flinched at the sound of the metal smashing into one of the higher parts of the building, behind her.

Seconds later, she felt one of the little towers on top of the mansion crash down behind her. Not her fault though, not this time.

Then, the creature jumped up, after her, and she dodged it again. This time, when the two minions that remained on the ground jumped after it, both the beast and the minions fell through the roof, and from the sound of it, through the floor beneath it too. She felt a little laugh come up. This was her first actual cape fight, and it was going relatively well. She hadn't been hurt, and her minions helped her dance around her enemy like it was nothing. The only problem was that she didn't have any way to actually get through its massive regeneration, but hey, maybe the beast would get tired eventually?

The werewolf started clawing its way upwards, out of the hole it's bulk had created in the building, onto the roof. Mockshow, deciding that she would have absolutely none of that, made her mount turn towards one of the remaining little turret, and smashed away at the bottom half of it, until it fell over, right into the hole from which the beast was trying to crawl. The beast was buried once again, with a satisfying crunch of bones breaking.

The next few minutes were silent, except for the groaning of parts of the old building, and the sound of the beast trying to claw its way up. Mockshow waited, having decided to wait until the Protectorate was almost there, and then flee, so that they could handle the whole crazy werewolf thing. Someone had to have called the cops by now, right?

Then, the beast suddenly jumped upwards again, suddenly appearing from in between clouds of dust. This time, it managed to grab her mount in between its jaws, and it started shaking it. Olivia panicked, and made her mount retaliate, all the while falling off.

She landed on an inclined part of the roof, and slowly tumbled down, trying to grab hold of something. Eventually, as she reached the edge, she managed to hold onto the rain gutter, and felt her power accept it. Just as she was about to make it move and set her down on the ground two floors below her, something shook the building, and she lost her grasp.

Falling down, she dimly realized that this was a really shitty way to go, before hitting the lower roof beneath her, and going right through it, ending up inside the pool again.

Still half-stunned, she slowly swam for the side of the pool. For some reason, the werewolf hadn't followed her down here. Was it still attacking her mount?

She noticed that half the room was now filled with one of the towers that had fallen down. She pulled herself up, and slowly walked towards it, every part of her body was sore from the fall, but she reached it, touched it, and empowered the now separated brickwork before she heard something at one of the doors into the pool.

The wolf, now smaller than before, stood in the opening, and started slowly walking towards her. She responded by sending her new minion forwards, the brick and mortar slowly moving forwards, it wasn't very effective material, but it was better than nothing.

Then, she was surprised as something big and hairy jumped on her from behind, pushing her to the ground, and standing on top of her body.

Hadn't the werewolf been in front of her? Hadn't she almost tired it out?

The beast on her back growled, and she decided to stay very still as it stood there.

"Tera? What happened? Why is everything destroyed?" a man's voice called out. He sounded worried, and scared. "Did I hurt anyone? Who is that?"

Olivia felt the beast on its back twist and change, turning into a human. A woman, a naked woman. And although she wasn't a wolf anymore, the woman still overpowered her, and lifter her up, holding Olivia in a tight grip.

"She and some other children broke in and caused mayhem. She fought you, after you broke out," the naked woman said.

"A parahuman then, I presume?" the man asked. Now, she could get a proper look at him. He was naked, wearing absolutely nothing, and conscious of the fact. For the rest, he seemed to be more in shape than the average rich idiot. Not that he had a sixboard and massive glutes, but he wasn't fat. That would probably change a bit now that she'd destroyed his treadmills, but whatever.

"I think yes, or a practicioner, she made things come alive with a touch," the woman, Tera, said.

The man approached her, walking past the brick construct. For just a second, she thought about making it attack him, but Tera's hands were quite close to her throat.

The man, she realized it must have been MacFinn, removed her mask with his hand.

"Christ, you can't be more than what, thirteen or something?"

"Fourteen," she replied defiantly.

"And you fought it, the beast inside of me? Held it off?"

She nodded.

"Then you have my gratitude, for that at least. There are not many who could hold off a loup-garou. As for the rest," he said, looking around the ruins of his mansion. "We can talk about the rest of this later, when we're all wearing clothes. Tera, could you help our guest into something dry? And perhaps put on something yourself? I have a feeling that we may have some uninvited guests incoming.

***

Fifteen minutes later, Harley MacFinn stepped over the rubble in his hallway, and opened what remained of his mansion's front door. Instead of swinging inwards, the door decided to give up, and just fell over. A quick sidestep allowed him to dodge the falling hardwood, and brought Harley face to face with Revel, leader of the Chicago Protectorate. She was flanked by Campanile, a local face that had graduated in the wards somewhere in the last few years, and someone he dimly recognized as Dove-something, a recently acquired flying cape that had apparently been transferred in from a different city.

"Good evening Ma'am, can I help you?" he asked.

"Mister MacFinn, how nice to see you again? Someone called us, saying something about a disturbance?" she replied, gesturing at the ruined garage, and the loosened brickwork spread around the lawn.

"Ah, yes, I see what you mean. Well, I'll be happy to tell you that there are no problems here. I was just having some remodelling done," He answered.

"Remodelling?" Campanile asked, sounding sceptical.

"It was some very enthusiastic remodelling."

"I see… Well, you can call us if there's trouble, mister MacFinn, and next time, please try to do your remodelling during the daytime? Means your neighbours won't wake up in the middle of the night." Revel said.

"Of course," he replied. "And thank you for your watchfulness, I've always believed that the Chicago Protectorate is one of the city's most noble institutions, and I look forward to speaking to you again during the next fundraiser."

"Very well mister MacFinn, I'll see you then," Revel replied, sceptically, before she and her superpowered posse turned around.

Idly, Harley tried to close the door, before realizing that it was currently lying on the floor. Then, he thought that perhaps it was best if he did get some remodelling done.

But first, he would have to do something about his broken containment circle.