Grimmfall: Eclipse

I do not own Grimmfall, Gargoyles, OK K.O, Powerpuff Girls or any other franchises with characters or ideas that appear in this story.

A new threat emerges, heralded by Goliath's former love. As Point Prep's own Foxtail goes on the hunt, Sebben brings Melissa Hunter into the field to stop events from spiralling into chaos.

Xxx

Chapter Six: Night Raid

"I still can't believe anyone paid for this billion dollar target." Melissa said for the tenth time since leaving North America, looking around the spacious interior of the command deck of Fox's illustrious concept of transport. "I mean…why though?"

"Aircraft carriers altered every form of doctrine for both war and peacetime." Foxtail replied, standing upon a circular platform that gave her a bird's eye view of the lower echelons of the room. "It made perfect sense to take that to the next level."

"Yeah, but the gravity dust on this thing must cost more than what a small country can spend." Melissa insisted. "I mean really…"

The clouds ahead of them split and allowed the aerial carrier marked with the flag of the United States Air Force to briefly be exposed under a sheet of silver moonlight.

"A freaking 'helicarrier'?" Melissa finished her thought as the USAF Valkyrie, the armed forces' donation to POINT Prep,delved back into the cloud cover, maintaining a position over the channel between the British Isles and European coast. "Seriously. We have teleporters. Why?"

"I take it this has been a subject of great debate in the past." Goliath sighed, standing just off to Foxtail's side.

"You have no idea." The fox Faunus deadpanned and took a long sip of coffee. "Overwatch-Command, report." She then discreetly added under her breath. "Please tell me London is on fire. Anything to get off this ship."

"Command-Overwatch, still no signs of activity in the AO." An operator tasked with managing communications.

"Very good, carry on." Foxtail sighed and rubbed her brow as Melissa paced back and forth. "What could they be waiting for? Pan is right there…"

"And they had all day to strike if they wanted to be sure we wouldn't interfere…supposing they have reason to think we would even know." Goliath grunted. "How long until sunrise?"

"Four hours." Melissa answered. "Good thing Lex got Mr Coffee fixed up."

A chorus of 'amen' went across the bridge as numerous members of the early morning shift raised their own mugs in a toast.

"Bless that gargoyle's brilliant bald head." One operator sniffed and then drowned his tears in sweet caffeinated goodness. "I swear after this that I will never think of gargoyles as-" He paused to take a sip only to spit it out all over his screen. "Shit!"

Hie neighbour glared over at him. "No it isn't, this stuff is good! You shut your heathen mouth!"

"Not that!" The operator hurriedly cleaned off his screen and tapped in several commands at rapid fire pace. "Command-Overwatch!"

"Command." Foxtail replied, giving the man her full attention. "Go ahead."

"We just lost full sensor coverage on the AO!" He said. "I'm getting nothing from the drones, can't ping any of the surveillance teams, even CCTV is down!"

"Got nothing either."

"Same here!"

"Got telemetry from one drone, rerouting it towards- lost it just now. Went dark five hundred meters from the site."

"Bring the outer pickets in and have them maintain a distance of five-fifty." Foxtail ordered. "Alert our British friends and scramble a drop jet. Helm, all thruster's green one-five."

"Green one-five, aye!" The entire carrier began to alter course, turning northwards. "Green one-five set!"

"Midships. Set for zero-zero-five and accelerate to four-zero knots." Foxtail drained her cup and nodded to Goliath, motioning aft with her head. "Get your clan. Hangar. We'll need faster wings to get there in time. Hunter, go with them. I'll be right behind you."

Xxx

As the aerial carrier made for London at best speed, a single aircraft shot away from the Valkyrie, carrying Goliath's clan along with Melissa, Foxtail and a small team of her commandos. The interior was a dim red colour and the craft was putting out so much velocity that its occupants could feel it rattling around them.

"Are we sure about your kid tagging along?" Foxtail asked Goliath.

"I'm right here." Angela glowered from her seat.

"Again. Are we sure?" Foxtail ignored her.

"Angela is a member of my clan, and more than that: she is an adult who makes her own decisions." Goliath replied.

"Then she won't have problems taking down mommy dearest if she runs into her?" Foxtail asked.

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here." Angela growled. "I may not wish my mother harm, but I'm not going to let her roam free where she can harm others if I have the chance to prevent that."

"If you say so." Foxtail shrugged. "We're already going in blinder than usual, so I want to be certain everyone is on board."

"What do you mean by 'blinder than usual'?" Broadway asked.

"I mean that the whole site is a dark zone now." Foxtail explained. "No signals going in or out, and drones fall out of the air as soon as they get close. Power got cut out to the same distance as well. Wired or wireless, electronics go down and stop working."

"So unless we have someone with binoculars watching from outside that zone we're going in blind." Melissa sighed. "Perfect."

"Nearest ground teams outside the dark zone reported sounds of gunshots, so odds are good that this is what we've been waiting for." Foxtail continued. "We'll get in as close as we can, then deploy. Hunter, Maza, you're the only non-flyers so buddy up with someone."

"You're the fastest flyer, so congrats, buddy." Melissa ribbed while Elissa shifted closer to Goliath.

"So be it. Masks on. Start depressurizing." Foxtail unstrapped herself from her seat and approached the back of the cabin as everyone not a Gargoyle began donning oxygen masks. "Distance."

"Thirty to deployment, ma'am."

"Don't go straight in. Scrape past the edge of the dark zone. We don't know how high it reaches." Foxtail held out an oxygen mask which Melissa slipped on. "Hunter and I will go first. You still remember how to shield yourself for a high velocity drop?"

"I'm the one who taught you how to do that, smart ass." Melissa reminded her as she stood with her back to Foxtail, who secured them together at torso level with a pair of interconnected harnesses which she tested then donned a mask of her own and nodded to a commando who pulled a switch, opening the aft hatch of the cabin to show the lights of London below…and a dark splotch in the middle of it.

"Alright people, I'll see you ground side!" Foxtail barked. "And remember not to shoot any friendly gargoyles down there, or you'll be answering to the angry little blonde strapped to me."

Then she stepped backwards and Melissa felt the winds whip past them both as they exited the protective envelope of the dust field shielding their transport from being ripped apart under its own velocity. Foxtail's aura flared and she began a controlled dive towards the dark zone while Melissa screened them both from the resulting sonic boom with a fortified aura shield. The result was a green-gold blob of light that quickly turned into a bullet streaking across the night sky.

It took them mere seconds to land, and when they did it was amidst a chaotic battle. Gunfire and explosions, flashes of aura and blades. Foxtail had managed to land close to the research facility, and even better: she'd done so among those who objectively looked like they were the attackers.

It was kind of hard not to, seeing as they were wearing the colours and symbols of Satyra. Melissa caught that much in the final instant before the two airborne Huntresses punched a nice sized crater into the middle of a parking lot. Many of the attackers were flung skyward or knocked over, as well as a far smaller number of defenders clad in repainted British military hardware. The battle paused as both sides reacted with understandable shock to the sudden impact.

Then in the ensuing silence, Melissa unclipped herself from Foxtail and launched herself out of the crater, landing on the side facing towards the Satyra fighters where she stood up as the dust settled around her, her eyes casting a teal glow as she scanned the auras of everyone before her to see who stood out as a threat and who was most vulnerable.

She removed her oxygen mask and gave an annoyed sigh. "False alarm, Fox. It's not Gargoyles, it's just Satyra."

"What?!" Foxtail rose up out of the crater, aura flaring again. "I just dove out of a plane for a bunch of second rate terrorists?!"

"Yyyyep." Melissa pointed off to her left. "That one."

Foxtail took the prompt and launched herself forward, knocking over more of the stunned Satyra fighters to home in on one in particular…who Melissa sensed had a Semblance for creating explosive shockwaves. A Huntsman trained fighter hiding among regular troops was a regular tactic for battles of this scale. It was also predictable that Satyra would have someone specializing in causing mass damage.

Foxtail gripped the side of the fighter's helmet covered head with one gloved hand, then brought the other down. He flipped head over heels as the former was buried into the concrete, his aura shattered. By now the rest of his allies had shaken off their shock and turned their weapons on the new threats.

"This is just sad, really." Fox sighed, already relocated far from where they were aiming and ploughing through multiple fighters per second. "I expected a crack team of elite Gargoyle warriors led by one of the most dangerous women in the last thousand years."

"And instead we get the Satire Squad." Melissa agreed, ripping the rifle out of one fighter's hands and throwing it into a second's face before kicking the first into a group of his allies, bowling them over. "Believe me, I'm disappointed too. Probably Satyra's way of cutting out the chaff."

"Do not retreat, brothers and sisters!" One of the Satyra members in a uniform slightly more…decorative than the rest barked from the back. "Our Lord and father Pan depends on us to- hurk!"

"Aaaaand the leader gives himself away." Melissa shook her head, a long line of unconscious fighters behind her and the leader held up by the throat in one hand. "You are absolutely the worst, and I don't mean your ethics."

By now the other Satyra fighters had been beaten down by Foxtail, who stopped behind Melissa with her arms crossed. "Well, I suppose it was too much to hope we'd catch the right snake today."

"You- urk! Race trait-" The Satyra commander glared at Foxtail who hushed him and pinched his lips shut.

"Shhhh. Adults are talking." She whisper-shouted to him. "But maybe you can be a pal and point me to whatever it was that you used to knock out the power around here. I really need to make a call, you see I just can't have taxpayer money being wasted on an air drop that isn't needed anymore."

The leader's expression shifted while he made a confused noise. Melissa looked past him to the area just beyond the lot. It looked like the Satyra troops had used a dump truck to crash open the compound gates and then spilled in on several vehicles converted with armour over their frames. Yet what caught her eye was the presence of one in particular which had…

"A dust cannon." She muttered, seeing that large truck-mounted cannon pointed towards the defenders on the far side of the lot and the internal gate that led to the compound proper. "That's some heavy artillery, pretty expensive too, but kinda useless with whatever's messing up electron…"

Something clicked in her mind.

"This dark zone isn't their handiwork."

Foxtail tensed. "Distraction?"

"Absolutely." Melissa jabbed her palm into the commander's temple to knock him out cold and then set him down.

Some hurried footsteps heralded the arrival of several of the security guards. "Huntsmen?" One called out. "Good timing there. This lot was starting to a little too close and personal for comfort."

"We need to get inside." Melissa said, making him halt in surprise.

"Eh- pardon?"

"This whole attack was a distraction!" Melissa shouted.

"You mean Satyra snuck by us?!" One of the security guards blurted out in shock.

"No. Worse!" Melissa held up a hand and Foxtail grabbed it, taking both of them into the sky. "Quit wasting time out here!"

Foxtail flew over the inner gate, and the guards there were too surprised to really amount any kind of attempt at stopping the pair. She dropped Melissa at the entrance and looked up. "You go low, I'll go high!"

Melissa reread back one fist, channeling her aura down into her knuckles and then letting it out in a blast that ripped through layers of metal shutters and reinforced glass. She dove through the hole she'd made and rolled to her feet.

"Satyra!" Someone shouted before Dust enhanced bullets slammed into her aura, forcing her to fortify it in the direction of the gunfire as she drove herself towards the source.

"Hold your fire!" Her hand closed around the barrel of a rifle and forced it up before the shooter could waste more ammo on her. "Huntress! Huntress! Friendly! You've already been breached!"

The shooter and his companions who were manning a barricade in the lobby looked at her in shock, more than one still aiming towards her but holding fire with their ally in such close proximity. Luckily they weren't so trigger happy that they didn't realize that she wasn't a Faunus.

"Listen to me you morons! That Satyra attack was a diversion. Someone else is here for Pan!" She shouted.

"How does she know about that?" One man whispered before another elbowed him and addressed Melissa while the building lightly trembled from Foxtail making her entrance elsewhere.

"Uh- ma'am, the labs are fully locked down. I assure you-"

"They can teleport, and they knocked out every electronic signal to make sure nobody will know until after they're done." Melissa released the weapon. "Listen, my friend and I are here with your government's permission and she's going to punch through this building until she finds Pan. Point me in the right direction and you'll have fewer holes to patch afterwards."

The guard hesitantly nodded and motioned with one arm. "Right this way, ma'am. There's a stairwell this way."

"Good." Melissa followed along and glanced down, using her Semblance to scan for Aura signatures beneath the floor, searching for the source of the dark zone in case it was the product of a Semblance- and to see how many people were trapped down below.

What she saw past a certain point was utterly darkness. It made her almost miss a step.

"Ma'am?" The guard called to her.

"What is this?" Melissa whispered. "I can't see anything down there. It's like…it's like there's a black hole down there. I can't see a thing!"

Xxx

"Definitely Foxtail." Brooklyn commented as the Manhattan Clan landed on the roof of the facility, with each member carrying one or two members of the commando team due to their jetpacks being inoperative, to find a hole punched down to the interior. "Subtlety and her got a long distance relationship."

"I see someone down there." Elisa said, slipping free from Goliath's arms and shining a flashlight down on the figure of a woman laying on her side and what seemed like a small puddle of blood near her head. "They look hurt."

"We're on it. Doc, you're up." The squad leader waved the team's medic forward and brought the whole team down to cover him. "Clear!"

Elisa and the gargoyles joined them to find the woman was actually awake but dazed, made to remain where she lay as the medic checked her for injury.

"So…sorry…" She wheezed.

"Just lay still ma'am, we're here to help." The medic instructed.

"No…no…they…they made me…" The woman, in her present state, either didn't hear him or was too distraught to heed his words. "You have to…stop them!"

"What do you mean?" Elisa asked, kneeling next to her as the medic carefully turned her onto her back. "What did they make you do? Who is they?"

The woman's eyes fell on Goliath and she let out a distressed whimper. "Them. Them!" She took a shuddering breath. "I didn't want to. I swear! I…they…my sister…they would have…hurt her…"

"Demona." Hudson scowled. "Of course."

"Look at me. Look at me." Elisa guided the woman's eyes back towards her's. "Tell me…did Gargoyles threaten to hurt your sister? Did they force you to do something?"

"Y-yes…carry…carry a…box…in here." The woman's eyes teared up. "All they wanted…was to put it…somewhere…quiet. It was so small…"

"Sir." One of the commandos got the squad leader's attention. "Radon's got a whiff."

The member of the team in question actually had a full face mask on but was peering at the floor. "Semblance picked it up as soon as we dropped in." He murmured. "Someone's transmatted into here recently."

"That's how they did it, then." Goliath looked to his clan. "We need to find Pan's remains. And quickly!"

"I'm with the big guy on that." The squad leader had his men gather around. "We'll split off by fireteams. Two of mine per gargoyle. We know the lab we're looking for is underground and accessible by elevator and a few stairwells. Elevator should be dead, so focus on the stairs and make sure nobody slips past. We're gonna have a lot of friendlies and civvies on site and no way to announce ourselves, so make sure you identify yourself quick if you run into security."

"Sergeant, what's to stop them from just teleporting back out from down there?" One of the commandos asked. "They've done it before."

"Not from ten levels underground they haven't, and for all we know this dark zone is affecting their gear as much as our's. We know the Brits aren't afraid to use magical security either." The squad leader motioned them away. "Now get going! Time's wasting, people!"

Xxx

Three levels and ten sublevels below, Demona stared at the cloven, horned silhouette that lay suspended within a transparent containment block. It wasn't for any biohazardous reasons, as the remains were found to be free of anything dangerous and time had yet to mar the flesh of the ancient god Pan. From where she stood he actually looked peaceful, like he could be mistaken for sleeping.

He'd resembled a man with red hair arranged in many dreadlocks, a pair of horns poking out of his skull just below the hairline. With such a youthful visage he could be mistaken for one in his twenties or even late teens.

And this was how he'd been for countless centuries, ever since the hole where his heart had once beat was punched through his rib cage. If it had somehow been Sammael who'd done it she wouldn't be surprised.

"Extraction commencing, Lady Demona." Daemon reported as Pik leaned over an apparatus he'd designed solely for this task, ensuring that shaky hands and nerves wouldn't squander their opportunity. "We should be done momentarily."

"This would be a lot easier if we didn't knock out all my gear." Pik muttered as a surgical drill carefully pierced the block and dug its way down to Pam's chest, exploiting the hole in his rib cage to make insertion of a probe easier.

"A small sacrifice, Pik." Demona said. "Humans depend on their technology for everything. We can make due without it for a time."

"By your command, Lady Demona." Pik grunted, eyes fixed on the drill head as it drew close to breaching. "Alright, just gotta find some blood and we're golden."

The laboratory where Pan was stored had minimal security precautions compared to the levels they'd bypassed to get here. The humans had ignorantly assumed that because they could find no use for the remains of a god that nobody else would have any real motivation to try their hand at it. Their folly would prove to be her fortune. The few security guards posted on the tenth level were eliminated and her clan guarding every entry point, even the elevator, to ensure nobody would disturb them.

And for a moment she really thought nobody would before the floor trembled and a distant explosion made her look towards the opened doors.

"Company." She looked to Daemon. "Guard him. Once it is done, disable the disruptor field and engage an emergency recall for everyone. We won't commit to a fight any longer than necessary."

"Yes Lady Demona." Daemon drew a sword from his hip and took up position near the doors as Demona raced out into the corridor where several more warriors followed her towards the source of the disturbance: the elevator.

There she saw the guards she'd posted were already down, one being held off the floor by the neck in the grasp of one aggressive looking Foxtail.

"You've given me a lot of trouble." The fox Faunus said, and threw the gargoyle aside before advancing towards Demona. "Then again I shouldn't be surprised. Wherever you go, problems multiply for everyone. You exist solely to be a pestilence at this point."

"Funny." Demona smirked. "Coming from someone like you, that seems a tad hypocritical."

"Spare me the part where you try the 'we're not so different' speech." Foxtail drawled as she floated off of the floor, wreathed in her aura. "As a favour to Goliath and your daughter, I'll take you in without breaking you, and that's already more than you deserve."

She shot towards Demona and her retinue, but her target laughed and leapt up, narrowly dodging Foxtail's charge and latching onto her shoulders. Before Foxtail could adjust she felt Demona kick off of the ceiling and launch them both into the floor, sending them rolling several meters. The Gargoyle's strength was surprising to Foxtail, who even without her Semblance active was usually able to count on being the physically strongest in a fight.

"Surprised?" Demona asked, swinging her body out and delivering a kick to Foxtail's jaw that staggered her back.

"A little." Foxtail recovered and adjusted her Semblance, focusing on speed this time, and found her fist buried into a wall instead of Demona's face an instant later. "Can I assume whatever it is that keeps you from being a lot quieter during the day is to thank for this?"

"You wouldn't be wrong." Demona flexed her claws and waved off her guards. "Leave this one to me. Regroup with Daemon and stick to the plan. The opportunity to knock the head of POINT Prep down a few pegs is too sweet to pass up."

Foxtail'sears flattened against her head as she took a long, slow breath. Removing her cape, she popped her knuckles and started towards Demona, who remained nonchalant as her followers withdrew. As the distance between them closed the Faunus lashed out with a haymaker, but before she'd even finished Demona jabbed one hand forward, sinking the claws on two fingers into Foxtail's side just below her shoulder. The Faunus gasped and clapped her other hand over the area to find…blood.

"But…how…?" Foxtail backed up a step. "My…my aura-"

"Just one other thing you held over my kind for so long. You, the humans, the Mobians…all other races had some innate power that they guarded jealously." Demona mocked, arms uncrossed and slowly sauntering towards her. "And all that time, my people were expected to be subservient to you. To defend your homes. To fight your wars. To hold back the night."

Her eyes emitted a ruby glow. "Well now, Foxtail…we are the night. And your aura-" She wove around another attempted punch and kicked Fotail in the back of her knee, knocking her off balance before following up with a roundhouse kick that sent her to the floor entirely. "-is but a candle trying to hold back the void."

Foxtail pushed herself back up and kicked out, hitting thin air as Demona nimbly leapt up and then slammed down against her. The claws of her feet dug into Foxtail's back, making her cry out as blood flooded out.

"And without it, you and your fellow Huntsmen are less than nothing!" Demona hissed into her ears. "You train yourselves to rely on a crutch your whole lives. Gargoyles on the other hand…we only ever had our minds and bodies as weapons. We were strong without aura. We were fast without it. But to you…it is like air…" Her hands wrapped around Foxtail's throat and began to squeeze. "You just. Can't. Live. Without it."

She watched with glee as Foxtail struggled to draw breath, to call upon her Aura or Semblance, to pry the powerful claws away from her neck. Then slowly her strangled groans grew weaker as well as her struggles, and Demona could almost hear the seconds ticking down to when it would be over…

"Mother!"

And then Demona inhaled sharply, her hands falling open without her consciously meaning to release her prey. She looked up to see Angela staring at her from the elevator, accompanied by two humans unclipping themselves from rappel lines and swiftly drawing their guns on her.

"Get away from her!" One barked. "Hands where we can see them!"

"Angela…" Demona slowly uncurled the claws of her feet and stepped off of Foxtail, heedless of the rifles aimed towards her. "Of course Goliath would bring you here."

"I'm here by my choice, mother." Angela denied. "I'm here to stop you before you go too far. Again."

"As expected." Demona sighed.

"I said step away from her, now!" While the first commando reiterated his command the second slowly moved to Demona's flank, never letting his gaze shift or his aim waver. "Last warning!"

"One moment dear." Demona rolled her eyes and then, faster than anyone could blink, closed in with the second commando and snatched him up by the neck before throwing him against his companion, hitting dead centre and sending both to the floor. "Much better."

Angela, who had barely taken a step forward in the time it took for her mother to dispatch her companions, swallowed. "You haven't changed."

"But that's where you're wrong, Angela." Demona clasped her wings around her shoulders, letting them hook together. "I have found a greater calling than my own ambitions for once. I have found fulfillment in service to one who I am finally proud to acknowledge as my clan leader. I no longer desire the deaths of all humans, Mobians or Faunus everywhere."

"Then what do you desire?" Angela demanded. "What could all of this violence necessitate?"

"A home, Angela. A home for all gargoyles, everywhere." Demona answered. "A kingdom to call our own. One that we live in and defend for ourselves rather than for others. One where we can truly be free. And these other races would never allow that. They are all consumed by hatred for that which is not like them, those Satyra fanatics you no doubt witnessed on the surface are a prime example of that. They will seek to destroy or enslave us because in the end that is all they know how to do."

"You are wrong, mother." Angela denied. "The Satyra embody the worst in Faunus-kind, but they are few. The world is so much bigger than just hateful and fearful souls like their's."

"Oh yes…it includes her as well." Demona pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Foxtail, who was struggling to rise. "A real prime example of everything wrong with this era. Do you know exactly what it is that made her and Lady Hunter have their little falling out?"

"You…don't…say a thing…about her." Foxtail hissed through clenched teeth.

"Aw…does the truth hurt?" Demona asked. "Does knowing that the only reason you lay there defeated is your fault entirely just burn you up inside? After all…you're the one who brought it back."

"What are you talking about?" Angela demanded. "What have you done to Miss Foxtail?"

"I've done the worst thing that could happen to someone like her. Someone who craves power above all else. I've taken it away." Demona shrugged. "Well…more like suppressed it. It isn't a permanent thing unfortunately. And the irony is that I've done it with one of her own weapons. You can't feel it. We can't. We don't utilize aura. But she can. Or rather she feels the complete and total absence it brings."

Foxtail's eyes widened as she pulled herself up a wall and to her feet. "You…you really built it?"

"All thanks to you." Demona nodded. "The perfect equalizer against your species' greatest warriors. You held out longer under its effects than I expected, but credit where it is due: you are far above the typical Huntress. But you sure felt it. How you grew heavier. Slower. Weaker. Even you couldn't resist for long, not with how much aura you burn through regularly."

"Is that what you took from Pierpont Labs?" Angela asked. "Some…anti-aura weapon?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Demona pointed to Foxtail. "Or better yet…"

Her eyes shifted to one side. "Ask…her."

Angela followed the direction she indicated and saw Melisssa emerging from a side corridor with several security guards behind her, their weapons aimed towards Demona.

"Stay back!" Angela held up a hand. "She's…she's stronger and faster than before, you'll never hit her!"

Melissa held up one arm and gently motioned the guards back. "What have you done?"

"You're going to find out eventually, so I suppose there's no harm…" Demona hummed as Melissa stepped into the middle of the room, stopping by Angela's side. "My master dug up a little something from your past that you tried to bury. A…what was it? Ah yes…a 'genie in a bottle'."

Melissa trembled as her hands balled into fists. "You're lying." She insisted. "I destroyed it. I killed it."

"You did such an admirable job, too." Demona nodded. "But you made one mistake…you let her live." She turned and began to walk away from them, mockingly taking her time with a leisurely pace as she passed Foxtail. "Because I'm feeling in a good mood, and because I know Angela would never forgive me if I did it in front of heer, I'll permit myself to commit that same mistake for the two of you."

"You aren't going anywhere!" Foxtail snarled, pushing off of the wall and staggering after her. "You don't get to walk away!" She stumbled onto all fours. "Melissa, do something! Stop her!"

"I can't." Melissa shook her head.

"But she is right there! The two of us-" Angela protested.

"I can't use my aura here!" Melissa shouted. "And you said it yourself: she's too strong and fast now. She could kill all of us without breaking a sweat as things stand."

"Now I see where all the brains in POINT went." Demona laughed softly. "Angela, my dear…I only ask that you stay out of the way. Encourage your father to do the same and maybe, just maybe, he and his clan can also reap the benefit of our labour."

The corridor and elevator room's lights flickered back on where before they'd only been lit by emergency chemical light fixtures that had cast a red glow.

"Splendid!" Demona clapped her hands together. "All finished. We'll show ourselves out now." She waved mockingly to Foxtail, whose aura flared into view once again. "Tata. Do let me know how the next five minutes went the next time we meet."

Her figure winked out of existence, the signature optical effect of a transmat clear for all to see. Foxtail gave a frustrated growl and slammed a fist into the floor where the gargoyle had been standing previously.

"No!" She growled. "Damn it. I had her!"

"They got what they came for." Angela realized. "Does that mean-" Suddenly Melissa, whose aura had also returned, left her side and raced towards Foxtail who was rising back to her full height.

"We need to bring specialists in here." Foxtail turned. "Maybe we can find out where they-"

THWACK!

Melissa struck her in the side of her face with a powerful flying punch. Her Semblance keyed itself at the last instant to prioritize her endurance, letting Foxtail tank the hit, though it still unsteadied her.

"You. Bitch!" Melissa shouted. "I can't believe it! Of all the reckless, irresponsible and-and- you had no right!"

"Melissa!" Angela raced over and grasped Melissa's arms as she prepared to launch herself at the taller woman again.

"You had better get yourself under control, Hunter." Foxtail growled as she rubbed where the punch had landed. "You only get that one for free."

"I'll give you a hell of a lot worse than that by the time I'm done with you!" Melissa retorted. "Do you not realize what you've done?! What Demona of all people has because of you?! You. Had. No. Right!"

"Please, stop!" Angela pleaded. "Melissa, what has she done that has you so enraged?!"

"Titanomachy!" Melissa snapped. "Something that never should have been made. Something I got rid of! Something this stupid, arrogant, jack booted thug brought back!"

"The project was property of POINT Prep and the United States Government." Foxtail defended. "If anyone had no right, it was you when you grew cold feet!"

"I think that perhaps there is a lot that we have not been told." The three women looked towards the elevator room to see it now occupied by the rest of the Manhattan clan along with Foxtail's soldiers.

"And that perhaps it would be better to handle this more…privately." Goliath added.

"I agree." Foxtail nodded to her men. "This is above your paygrade. Same with those security guard unless any of them happen to be American and have top level security clearance."

The commandos got the implied order and quickly cleared out, herding the security guards with them. When a few tried to protest, mentions of how they could end up assassinated for hearing the wrong thing convinced them to get moving faster.

"In fact I think if we're really going to do this it should be somewhere more secure." Foxtail picked up her cape. "If you would allow this little tantrum to wait until we're back aboard the Valkyrie-"

"No." Melissa shook her head. "No, I'm done cooperating with you. I'm done!" She shook Angela off. "No truce. No alliance. We. Are. Done!" She pointed at bristling Foxtail. "I'm making sure Sebben knows. I'm making sure the whole damn Huntsmen Association knows!"

"Know what? That Point PREP had the single greatest anti-huntsman weapon on the planet?" Foxtail countered. "Or that you were the one to make it in the first place?!"

"Melissa…is that true?" Elisa asked.

"Absolutely." Foxtail answered. "Little Miss Highground here was one of the most brilliant minds at Point PREP before she made the decision to join an exchange program with Nevernest Academy and met that…that neanderthal she calls a husband. Before that, she knew the meaning of loyalty and commitment."

"All I knew was the meaning of blindly following orders from someone who didn't give a damn!" Melisssa pointed up at Foxtail. "And you don't say another word. This isn't your tale to share…it's mine."

She slowly turned to face the Manhattan clan, shaking with barely constrained fury from head to toe. After she'd finally reined it in she found the courage to speak again. "What she says…is true. Back in POINT Prep, I was part of a think tank for developing new weapon systems based on Dust and aura. My Semblance…has a lot of applications, like I told you; one of them led to a weapon that was used right here tonight…Project Titanomachy."

She swallowed and averted her gaze towards the floor. "POINT Prep and…certain elements of the US government at the time liked it so much that they invested in it. Heavily. And if I hadn't stopped it. If I hadn't left…"

Seeing how distraught she was, Hudson took a step closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Easy, lass, easy. Whatever it is, it changes nothing of what I said before."

"It should…" Melissa swallowed. "Because if they ever got an excuse, they were going to use it to kill Phil Ken Sebben."

Xxx

As Demona felt the transmat array reassemble her physical form she let out a satisfied sigh. "That…was therapeutic."

The array had deposited her within the intersection of a series of tunnels that had been furnished with multiple tents and cots for use as temporary shelter. The loss of the Hsi Wu had done nothing more than force her clan to relocate here earlier than expected. And while it was located uncomfortably close to the very people they were supposed to be avoiding, old wisdom did indicate that ironically was the best place to remain concealed. While by no means luxurious it was sturdy, dry and most importantly: secure.

"I don't think that's a recorded side effect of a transmat system, Lady Demona." Pik shifted his goggles as the rest of the strike force began to disperse, greeting the rest of the Grim Clan with open arms and tales of victory while those who'd been beaten down by Foxtail were taken for healing. "Should I call for a medic?"

"No…no…" Demona waved him off. "Daemon?"

"We have it." Daemon held up a metal canister. "Blood of Pan. Still as fresh as the day his heart was ripped out."

"And thanks to your encounter with Foxtail we also now have a successful field test of Project Titanomachy's primary function!" Pik added, patting a device which was so big that it had to be kept on a cart. "I still need to go over the data from outside sources since it was rather impossible to use any surveillance equipment within the area of effect, but as far as I can tell it worked precisely as projected! And with the information from the machine's onboard computer I should finally be able to tailor the effects of the field with far greater precision in the future, averting the…rather inconvenient side effect of every electronic device within a certain distance being deactivated."

"Will that also tell you if we may dispense with use of this…transmat system in the future?" Daemon asked with a snort. "I prefer our more arcane methods of travel. They don't typically require so many extra steps to get us in or out."

"Oh absolutely not! The nature of the machine's power source makes translocation spells quite…unsafe for travel." Pik explained. "No, until a more foolproof containment method is devised, the transmat system will give us consistent results. Besides, if memory serves you enjoyed threatening that woman's sickly sister."

"Never claimed otherwise." Daemon chuckled and handed the blood canister to Demona. "The honour of sharing the good news is, of course, your's."

"And the duty of leading the next mission shall be your's." Demona replied, lightly shaking the canister. "With this next piece in hand, our father will require my aid."

"Then…we already have our next target selected?" Pik asked. "I wasn't aware that father had planned that far ahead."

"Oh, my dear Pik…" Demona tittered. "If father couldn't plan ahead, we never would have gotten those Satyra fools to be our guinea pigs."

"So their presence there wasn't a happy coincidence." Daemon smirked. "Impressive. It also explains where that Dust cannon came from. I take it Sammael must have arranged it for us."

"He is as persuasive as he is deceptive." Demona agreed. "And this way, Pik, even without any footage of the machine's effect on the surface you'll have no shortage of information to comb through from field reports and testimony of anyone within the area of effect. I trust that will been enough for you to refine the machine's effects in time for the promised day."

"Oh, yes!" Pik nodded eagerly. "Absolutely, Lady Demona. I shall have it fully prepared before then!"

"I trust you to do so," Demona assured him, "after all, if father has taught me one thing: it's that there's always a time to have faith in others. And my faith in him rewarded me with the singular pleasure of humiliating Foxtail. Next time I look forward to making her bear witness to her greatest failure."

Xxx

End of Chapter