Alena, Placidia, and Vinyl were all asleep on the bed that lay in the safe house, all snuggled up under the oversized blanket and multiple pillows. Twilight had a content smile on her face as she slept, Vinyl talked in her sleep at random intervals, and Placidia latched onto Alena's right arm in her sleep. On the other hand, Alena wasn't necessarily dreaming; no, she was in a blank void within her mind, and Alissa was there to accompany her.

Alissa pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, "For the last time, we can't hack into the different systems just to give you all fake I.D.'s, it's almost impossible to do with what little we have here! No, we'd need something a lot more powerful if we were to even attempt to pull it off."

"What if... What if I reach out to some contacts that can secure all of us some fake I.D. for the time being, so we can safely traverse the cities and not get pulled into a van by guys in suits wanting answers?"

Alissa gave Alena a questioning stare, "That's a good idea, but what about getting funds in order to actually travel and not leave a trace with credit or debit card statements?"

"...Right, we have no money, I don't trust either of our magic to make counterfeits that can't be caught, and all of my accounts and Placidia's are most likely being monitored. There's only one real way to get some cash so we can get ourselves some better accommodations."

Alissa got a knowing look, "You want to just casually stroll into a bank, hack them while you're setting up an account with obviously fake I.D., and stroll on out with bunches of cash. Alena, you are one crazy bitch, though that comment is more than true, and pretty deserving."

All that achieved to do though, was to make Alena blush, "Awww, stop it! Don't flatter me unless you want to take me out on a date."

Alissa gave Alena a raspberry, "Nah, I wouldn't take you out even if we weren't sisters and I didn't occupy the same body as you," and then she stuck out her tongue.

"Thanks, I love you too, Alissa."

"Speaking of, I know how much you care for Placidia. I can see how much you just want to be with her, Alena. It pains you, even if you yourself don't feel it. Take a leap and tell her how you really feel about her, she won't judge you. The two of you are so close, and you've already done things that are normally done by couples anyway. You're both comfortable with each other enough to sleep with nothing on in the same bed and not get weirded out by it. Take the next step, and ask her out, before I take control and do it for you."

Though she was laughing, Alena knew that Alissa was serious about wanting her to confess her feelings to Placidia. "Alright, I'll do it, right after she wakes up. I'm going to get up and see if I can round together the crew and discuss some things." Alena hugged Alissa tightly, "Thanks again for being here, I don't know what I'd do without a sister like you."

"No problem. Now get out and get talking!"

Alena nodded and faded out of the void, opening her eyes as she came back to reality. The first thing she noticed, was that Placidia had latched onto her arm at some point while asleep, while both Twilight and Vinyl were sort of spread-eagle, with Vinyl's arm under Twilight and Twilight's arm under Vinyl, both snoring away.

Alena didn't try to dislodge her arm from Placidia's grasp without waking her, that would be impossible. She just pulled until her arm came free, which disrupted Placidia's comfort enough that she woke up. "Aaaauuuuu, I was comfy!~ Why'd you wake me uuuup?"

Alena gave Placidia a flat stare, "Because I needed to get up, both to use the bathroom, and to see what I can find out about what happened since we left." Alena got up and walked to the bathroom and shut the door. Moments later, there was the sound of water running from what seemed like a shower. Placidia figured that with nothing better to do, she went over to the computer that was on the desk to turn it on, and sat down as it booted up. All was fine, right up until it actually got to loading the operating system, "What? Xubuntu? I thought that the computer would have Windows on it. Oh well, let's see what's going on around the 'net."

Thirty seconds later, Placidia had wished she never turned on the computer. The text on the page before her put her into a stunned silence from the sheer absurdity of it. One wouldn't have to think very hard about what some of the threads on Reddit had said...

House randomly disappears during the night, occupants either missing or dead. Paramilitary company Nocturne arrives on scene and blacks out media coverage.

Extra-terrestrials thought to be responsible for disappearance of home in West Virginia."

Then there were a few threads that really caught her eye...

Hacker groups all across the United States put aside differences for joint-effort hacking project, all efforts ineffective against Nocturne's defenses.

Rumors of Nocturne creating advanced weaponry that rivals the U.S. Navy and Marines surface, Commander Marcus Winters waltzes around directly answering questions with surprising grace and elegance.

Placidia's musings were cut short however, when she heard what sounded like someone singing. The only other person that was awake at the moment though was Alena. "Weird, I never knew Alena sang before..."

The song was peaceful, bringing a calm state to Placidia's very being; Alena's voice was pleasing to hear, like a choir of beautiful bells made of crystal. 'She sounds really lovely, now that I think about it. I wonder why she's never sung even when it was just us hanging around?'

Not five minutes later, Alena came out of the bathroom, "Holy shit, I needed that shower... Oh, you're on the computer," Alena said as she walked over to Placidia, draped her arms over her shoulders and down her chest, and rested her chin on Placidia's head, "So, what's goin' on around the Interwebs?" Alena got her question answered a moment later, when Placidia went back to the tab that displayed the Reddit front page. Eyes wide, Alena couldn't help but whisper, "Shit! The whole friggin' public knows about our disappearance." Alena moved to Placidia's side and gave her a glare, "Placidia, I need that seat, It's time I called in some favors."

Alena got a curious stare from Placidia, who tilted her head as she did so, 'Damn, that's cute.', "Favors? What've you done aside from those streams?"

"Remember that gaming tournament I entered?"

"Yeah, I thought you lost though..."

"I did, but I also managed to knock out the one person that a guy I talked to was betting against. He asked me to enter and knock out that one person, who everyone else happened to be betting on winning."

Placidia got a shocked look on her face, "What!? But, but that's illegal, isn't it?"

All Placidia got for that question was a flat stare, "Placid, almost everything I've done for income was illegal. Hell, my mom knows, and all she said was that she respected what I did, so long as I didn't get caught. As the old phrase goes, "I SEE NOSINK, I HEAR NOSINK!" I know, bad German accent, but you get the point."

"You're involved with a lot of shady shit, Alena. I'm surprised that none of the agencies have pegged you yet."

"When you're as skilled as I am, you also tend to get very paranoid when it comes to security. Let's just say that I put Esburn from Skyrim to shame."

Placidia couldn't help but laugh at that comment, thinking of Alena as the biggest hermit on that side of the planet. This got Alena to shoot her a playful glare, "And what's so funny? You want to share whatever it is that's funny with the rest of the class?" Alena got her face closer and closer to Placidia's, who was trying her hardest to keep a straight face and failing. Seconds later, Alena's nose connected with Placidia's, and the two stared into each other's eyes. Alena couldn't help but stare into the two pools of grey that seemed absolutely beautiful to her, like an endless ocean that roared with waves higher than any building, yet also seemed calm and serene. Any time Alena looked into them, she couldn't help but feel calm and relaxed, and yet felt a strong conviction to protect her from any harm that may come their way.

Placidia stared into Alena's eyes; a deep, fiery red that seemed to convey the very nature of the person before her - a flame - gentle and warm, giver of light and warmth, yet also dangerous if toyed with. For a second, Placidia could've sworn that she did see a flame dance within Alena's eyes, probably. Normally, if one got to close to a flame, it burned them mercilessly, but this one seemed different. It longed for someone to get closer, so it could give warmth, and also protect from harm. No, it wasn't a flame, but almost a literal burning desire to protect those close, and also signified her love for... something. As she stared, Placidia couldn't help but feel very warm and relaxed, like she was wrapped in a blanket of pure warmth, and felt safe. It was then that she realized that her feelings just might be mutual...

Alena broke Placidia out of her trance however, when she tilted her head up slightly, kissed Placidia on the tip of her nose, and smiled as she backed away. All Placidia could do was bring a hand up to her nose, and stand there with a shocked look on her face, as she stared at her nose. Alena couldn't help but smile at how adorable Placidia looked as she did that.

It was another minute before Alena shattered Placidia's stupor, "So! There's something that I want to talk to you about, but it can wait until tonight. I think you know what it is, but I'm not sure. It is important, though I would like a little more privacy to talk with you about it. We'll do it in a dream, so that no one else can listen in on it, alright?"

All that Placidia could manage to do was nod with a blank look on her face.

"Cool. Oh, can I have that seat for a moment? I need to get into contact with someone that can help us out. I know this guy, Alex, who lives not that far from where we are, actually. He's got our fake I.D. covered."

"He does?"

"Oh, he will. Trust me."

Placidia got out of the comfy desk chair, and sat on the couch that sat in front of a TV; she turned on the TV and flipped over to Netflix, and selected an episode of Weeds. After Placidia was happily seated and watching her show, Alena closed FireFox, and opened a terminal.

safeshack271 backbox:~$

safeshack271 backbox:~$ ssh wallflower792

wallflower792 's password:

serverhop993:~ wallflower792$ ssh wallflower664

wallflower664 's password:

serverhop117 :~ wallflower664$ ssh thewallflower

thewallflower 's password:

serverhop215:~ thewallflower$ firefox

Alena logged into the forum that was run on the isolated server, and posted a thread:

"I know you may not be expecting a post from me, as per the situation that has come up recently, but I'm back, and have brought a couple friends along with Placidia and I. I need a favor, however... The four of us all need a place to crash as well as some fake I.D. The safe house that we ended up at isn't as secure as one might think, seeing as all of them are also used by NSA and Nocturne employees as well as those with less legitimate forms of income. The reason that we need fake I.D. is twofold: I'm going to open a bank account under the fake name, and the two that came back with us need to be seen as normal citizens for the time being. Why I'm opening a new bank account, is because both my accounts and Placidia's are most likely being monitored, even though we just suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth. No, seriously, we did. I'm sure you'll be happy with the location we ended up going to. Shoot me a PM if you can help us out on short notice. Thanks."

After it was written out, Alena sent out the message, then got up and stretched. "Hey Placid, I think we should wake the other two up. We're going to be heading out in a couple of minutes."

"Alright," Placidia acknowledged as she picked up the remote and turned off the TV. As she looked over at the bed, Placidia couldn't help but smile at how adorable both Twilight and Vinyl were, as they slept nearly on top of each other. Their snores echoed throughout the place, Vinyl's sounded like a buzz saw, whereas Twilight's was a gentle, delicate snore. For just a moment, Placidia wondered if she could get away with snuggling between the two still sleeping ponies-turned-humans...

Nocturne - a private security force, with stocks invested in telecommunications companies, laboratories, and other miscellaneous corporations. Easily one of the biggest conglomerates in the United States, with ties in almost every country. And now a paramilitary organization that works with the government, due to a 157 to 3 Congress vote in favor of Nocturne dissolving the NSA into its rankings, and taking over their operations.

Marcus Winters, commander of Nocturne, walked over to the railing that overlooked the Analyst Pit. Sure, they have a computer that is used to comb through the data, with double redundant filters, but their contract had come with a clause which stated that they had to have humans checking all the data that went through their lines as well. Marcus leaned on the railing with his arms crossed, "Come on guys, give me something good! I want to find them before either the Feds or a terrorist organization get to them." He was about to say more, when the music that was in the background got louder, and louder. Finally, Marcus snapped.

"Steve! What the hell did I tell you not three hours ago!? I'm not some manipulative bastard that hates all of mankind. Either wear headphones, or just don't play that song when I come through the doors! Turn that shit off!"

The music abruptly stopped, followed by a, "Sorry, sir! Won't happen again."

Marcus just sighed and shook his head. His thoughts were interrupted, however. "Commander, we've got something interesting. I think you might want to look at this." Marcus' attention was drawn to the giant screen at the forefront of the Analyst Pit, when a window popped up and showed sporadic connections across the country, until it stopped at a data center in Atlanta.

"What's so interesting about those connections? They're routed through the different servers that were set up as VPN's for the safe houses that we 'never found'. That last connection is the localized message board, right? What's so special about this one route of connections?"

"That route was flagged, because someone logged into the one username that we put on our filter list. It's The Wallflower."

If one were to walk into the large operations room at that moment, they would need a light sabre to cut through the tension which settled upon everyone present.

"She's back, and it would be wrong to assume she came back alone," Marcus stood up straight, his boots somehow echoed throughout the whole floor, "LISTEN UP! Ayane, I want you out from that desk and over to the armory for prep five minutes ago! Steve, Bob! You two are on comms! Allen, get off of Minecraft and connect to that forum; find out what was posted, and relay the information to Steve or Bob." Marcus shot his left hand up to his forehead in a salute, "WE ARE NOCTURNE!"

The mass of analysts responded in unison, "SECURITY AND SAFETY ABOVE ALL ELSE!"

Marcus exited the operations room, and headed down the hall towards the elevator, up to the armory. The elevator doors opened to reveal Ayane, decked out in experimental tactical gear. Her short stature at 4'9", with her pink hair and eyes, made her almost too adorable, despite being in black shorts with similarly colored combat boots and tank top. Two utility belts hung loosely off her waist in opposite directions, holding extra rounds for the urban blue camo SCAR-L strapped on her back. Marcus idly wondered when R&D finished the SRH*, since they said that it was still in intermediary testing until further notice. The lack of kevlar however was made up for in spades by the KFD* that was approved for special use two months ago. He still wondered why they had chosen to house the device in a belt...

Marcus gave Ayane a glare that could level the rest of Rome, "Ayane, this is a low-risk mission. We're going in to collect two or more persons of interest, not into the middle of a gang war."

His glare, however, was returned in full force, "You once said that it's better to have and not need, than to need and not have. What we're about to deal with is so far out from left field, that we have absolutely no idea what could go down. We usually have way more intel before we go out on operations, so excuse me for being cautious."

It was a long two seconds before Marcus replied, "Fine, but you're using non-lethal rounds, as per protocol 512. Empty that clip, and refit your belt rounds. I'm not going to be responsible for an inter-universal incident because my second-in-command decided to sneak live rounds."

If looks could kill, the one Ayane was giving Marcus could've blown up the world. Twice.