A short journey after the vans had set off from the Palanquin, we arrived in Boston. And during that short journey, I nearly lost my mind.

Being the largest coastal city in Massachusetts, and one of the largest in the US besides that, saying that Boston was busy was an understatement. The road to the city was utterly cluttered with traffic, turning our little forty minute trip into an hour and thirty-minute one.

My playlist had ended a little over an hour into the trip, and because neither Emily nor I wanted to listen to whatever Newter would want to play (Elle was asleep and probably wouldn't have cared either way) we decided to just listen to the radio.

Which would be completely fine if it weren't for the fact that Newter decided that the best way to enjoy it was by belting out the lyrics to some pop song like his life depended on it, continuing to do so even as we pulled up to the garage outside of our suite.

"-OU CAN STAND UNDER MY UMBRELLA! ELLA ELLA ELLA AY AY AY~! UNDER MY UMBRE-!"

"Newter I swear to god if you don't shut up right now I'm going to toss you out the window, contact-high be damned!" Emily threatened, clearly at the end of her rope. I glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. The freckled girl was glaring daggers at her fellow crewmember, and was clearly thinking of making good on her threat.

Apparently even she had a limit.

"I'd listen to her, Newt, she sounds serious." I commented as I pulled into the garage behind Melanie's van. We had been lucky enough not to lose sight of each other despite the high volume of traffic along the way. I looked over to Elle, finding her just now waking up from her nap, and shook my head in amusement. How in the world had she slept through all that?

"Well excuse me! I need to find some way to entertain myself since none of you will let me listen to my music!" He complained and I snorted as I pulled the van up to a parking place. The garage was completely empty, not a single other car in sight and I wondered it that was intentional.

"I'm going to get you some headphones. There's no reason anybody should be subjected to your awful taste in music." I commented as I shut off the van, stowing the keys in my hoodie pocket while Elle stretched beside me, letting out a little yawn that was frankly adorable.

"Oh, I already have some." He said frankly as we climbed out of the vehicle, "I just didn't feel like putting them in."

Emily's face scrunched with something akin to rage. She turned to Newter incredulously, "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?"

The lizard-like teen just shrugged, and Emily made a garbled noise, stomping towards him with her hands held out, ready to wrap around his neck. Luckily, Newter was saved from his impending death and Emily from her impending high by our leader's arrival.

"Killing your fellow members is against the rules, Emily." The woman commented wryly as she walked up to us. Behind her, Gregor had popped the trunk of the van open and was pulling out boxes, sitting them on the ground behind the vehicle.

She turned to me, "Gregor and I are going to go make sure everything is good to go with our suites. Can you three take care of the unloading?"

I gave her a nod as Emily and Newter came to stand behind me, "Yeah, we can take care of it. Shouldn't take too long between the three of us."

"Good to hear. Elle seems to be fairly lucid right now so I'll leave her with you. I'll text you the room number once we get everything situated. Don't let them kill each other please." With that, she made her way to the staircase off to the side of the garage, Gregor lumbering closely behind.

I watched her go, before turning back to my two waiting friends, "Alright folks!" I smiled, "All we have to do is unload everything in both of the vans and bring it to the rooms that are likely at least one flight of stairs away. Shouldn't be more than a few hundred pounds worth of stuff, easy work." I said happily.

Groans were all I got in response from Emily and Newter, and I shared an amused glance with Elle, before Newter turned to me with a smirk, "You're carrying Elle's box."

I winced, I had completely forgotten about that one. it must have slipped my mind, "Shit."

How was I supposed to get that thing up the stairs?

After everything was all packed up, Melanie had all of us gather in her room for debriefing. It was kinda cramped but we managed to make it work. She and Gregor were standing in front of the bed, with Emily and Elle sat atop it, while Newter and I were standing by the door.

She looked around at all of us as we looked at her expectantly, and nodded, "Alright, now that we're all unloaded, it's time we go over exactly what we're doing here." The file she was holding in her hand crinkled as she opened it.

"We've got a contract with Accord right?" Newter piped up, "Something to do with Case-53s? You said we'd get a lot more info on our origins thanks to this job."

Melanie nodded, though I could tell there was just a bit of hesitance in the motion, "You're right, there's a large possibility we will gain a great deal of information. Though it's not nearly that simple."

"So what is it?"

Melanie turned to Gregor, who nodded at her, before turning to address the rest of the us as the mood in the room quickly turned downward.

"To put it bluntly, there is a rogue biotinker running amok in the city. He has taken to kidnapping any Case-53 they can find and experimenting on them to find out what makes them tick." Gregor said solemnly, "Whatever he is doing to them is fatal. Several bodies have been discovered strewn about the Ambassador's territory. Accord isn't happy about this, and hired us to stop him and steal any information he has managed to acquire."

I could hear Newter's sharp inhale beside me, and a small knot formed in my stomach as I turned to see his horrified stare.

"How many?" He asked quietly.

"Three so far as far as Accord can tell." Melanie took over for him, "Because Boston is such a populated city, there are likely to be others but we have no way of knowing for sure."

She slid some papers from the files, handing them to Gregor who handed them to Emily, "These are photos we were able to obtain of the biotinker's victims, their bodies were all found in various places within the Ambassador's territory. This has led him to believe that the cape, Darwin, has some sort of vendetta against him or his organization. Pass them around." She continued.

I looked down at the photos curiously as they reached me. There were three of them, like Gregor had said, and the pictures were seemingly taken after the deed had already been done, as all three of them were most certainly dead. The photos weren't gory, and it seemed the three Case-53's that Darwin had gotten his hands on shared a similar theme of being at mostly humanoid in appearance.

Still, despite being relatively tame, the photos still gave me an uneasy feeling as I rifled through them, wondering what sort of torment was inflicted on these people.

The first picture was the oddest of the bunch, as it was seemingly just a picture of an empty table. Closer inspection however, revealed that the person laying on the table just blended into its surface extremely well. It seemed they possessed some sort of active camouflage that persisted even after they had died. What little of their features I could make out were androgynous and their lack of hair didn't help in identifying their gender.

At the top of the photo was a name and a description:

Name/Alias: Faint

Occupation: Serial Pickpocket

Last Known Location: Charlestown

After his most recent shrink of robbery's, Faint seemingly disappeared. The PRT believed they had simply skipped town, until their body was tripped over by an unsuspecting civilian in the streets.

Brief but concise, somewhat clinical but I supposed that was understandable given the nature of the photos that was understandable. I moved onto the next.

This one reminded me of a werewolf from an old horror movie, matted fur and a dark muzzle. The photo was taken from the shoulders up, and the relatively small size of the table behind the cape's head led me to believe that that was due to his sheer size. His eyes were open, allowing glossy golden eyes to be visible, unseeing and empty in their current state.

Like before, there was a name and a description:

Name/Alias: Buckwild

Occupation: PRT Affiliated Vigilante

Last Known Location: East Allston

Buckwild failed to report in for his bi-weekly check-in with his PRT contact and was thus reported missing. His body was found ten days later, lying in the water near the Charleston Navy Yard.

So Darwin had managed to get his hand on someone affiliated with the heroes. That wasn't good. That could either mean he just got lucky, or he had people on the inside.

The last photo made my stomach churn slightly. Whoever the cape had been before she had turned, she was young, extremely so. Her form resembled a child-like puppet, complete with wooden skin and painted clothes and a curly bob of fake red hair on her head. Her painted features were contorted into an expression of agony, like a snapshot of her last moments, and I couldn't look for more than a few seconds before having to turn away.

Like all of the others, the picture wasn't gruesome, but the sight still didn't sit right with me, and I decided to just set the photos down, but not before looking at the description. And immediately wishing I hadn't.

Name/Alias: Anne

Occupation: N/A

Last Known Location: Little Hope Orphanage

Anne was reported kidnapped from Little Hope Orphanage after several other orphans reported her talking to a strange person a few hours before she disappeared. Her body was discovered near the Bunker Hill Monument, leaning against the Monument itself.

Those few little lines of text made my gut churn, and I tore my eyes away before they were burned into my head forever.

"The bodies showed little sign of any external damage," Melanie continued, "They weren't able to figure out exactly what Darwin had been doing to them, but it is likely power related."

"Why hasn't the Protectorate done anything!? They can't be okay with a cape serial killer in their city!" Newter asked angrily as I gave the photos back to Gregor, doing my best to keep calm.

"We don't know." Melanie answered, crossing her arms, "It is possible that they already have their hands full. The Teeth have been making moves from what I've been able to gather, and the Elite have apparently begun preparations to set up a cell in the city as Blueblood has been spotted in the Black Bay area as recently as last week."

"Have they gotten into any fights?" Emily asked curiously, some of which I shared. From what I recalled, the Elite were the largest villain organization in the United States. They mostly operated along the west coast, though they had been branching out recently, being sighted in New York and Florida. They worked on a loose pyramid structure, with each of their individual 'cells' having numerous capes headed by an Executive that answered to a jury of their peers, with no official leader of the group itself in play.

Most of the cells operated on a mostly economic level, buying property and stores, undercutting their competition's prices until they could no longer afford to stay in business. Then the Elite would swoop in and purchase their assets at a fraction of the usual price, securing complete dominance over whatever area they had decided to acquire. Scummy, but technically legal.

While fights involving the Elite were uncommon, they weren't unheard of. Bastard Son's cell especially seemed to operate much more like a gang than that of his peers, with his modus operandi being to flatten any opposition in preparation for the Elite occupation. He wasn't well liked by the rest of them.

Melanie shook her head at Emily's question, "No, there haven't been any reports of the Elite getting into fights with other capes, though Blueblood isn't the type to seek out fights." She hummed, t making a thinking face, "Although, the Teeth do have somewhat of a presence in the area, so it isn't impossible that there will be conflict between them."

She shrugged, "Either way, they are not our concern. Our job, in the simplest terms, is to infiltrate Darwin's base, steal as much information on his experiments as possible, and destroy whatever we can't take with us. The Elite do not factor into this, nor do the Teeth." Melanie concluded.

"And what's the job in not-so-simple terms?" I asked.

"We will figure that out tomorrow. We have a meeting with Accord where we will discuss the plan in its full scope." Melanie answered as she collected the photos, putting them back into the file.

"Uh wait a minute," Newter chimed in, looking nervous, "All of us?"

Melanie gave him a look, "Yes, all of us. Accord knew exactly who was on the crew when he hired us. He isn't likely to have a problem so long as you don't rub it in his face."

I was confused, "Wait, what are you talking about? What would he have a problem with?"

Newter turned to me, "Accord is super OCD. Power induced is what everyone thinks. Everything has to be absolutely perfect to him or he can become annoyed at best and homicidal at worst. So as you can imagine, an orange-skinned teen with blue eyes and a tail, or a six-foot bald man with translucent skin and shells on said skin, would probably be just a bit offensive to his delicate senses."

Ah, that explained it. "Well it's like Melanie said, he hired us knowing exactly what our team was about. There's no way he's gonna get pissy about your appearance if that's the case." I reassured him.

"I guess." He muttered. He clearly wasn't happy about the circumstances that had brought us here, and I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "I'm certainly not looking forward to it."

Melanie sighed, "Newter, if you are really that uncomfortable with it, I am sure Accord would allow you to stand outside of the meeting room. We can just catch you up when we get done."

"Alright, I think that's everything." Melanie looked around at everyone, "Unless anyone has questions."

"Do we need to stay in plainclothes?" Emily spoke up from her place beside Elle.

"The PRT in Boston has a mostly amicable relationship with mercenaries like us and have already been notified of our arrival." Melanie shook her head, "As long as you don't make a ruckus, there shouldn't be any problems with you going out in costume."

Here, Melanie's face became deadly serious and I straightened unconsciously, "I repeat. Do not make any sort of ruckus. Accord is the type to like all of his cards straight and in order. Any unneeded disruptions in his territory could very easily cause our relationship to sour before it begins. I don't think I need to tell you how bad that would be for our goals."

A chorus of agreements rang out, and Melanie's face returned to normal, "Good. Like I said, our work begins tomorrow so you are all free to take the rest of the day off. Just keep what I said in mind."

As we all poured out of the bedroom to go our separate ways, Newter turned to me, "Emily and I were gonna go check out the area. You wanna come with?" He asked.

I nodded, fiddling with my hoodie pocket, "Yeah, sure thing. Just give me a minute, there's something I've gotta take care of."

"Sure thing, Emily's gotta go get suited up anyway. She's actually got an identity to keep intact." He smirked, and I was glad to see a bit of his usual personality coming back, "I'll see you in the garage. We're gonna head out from there, take the alley onto the street to make it at least a bit difficult to find our hotel."

"Got it. See ya in a bit." I waved as he walked down the hall.

As soon as he was out of sight I pulled my phone out of my pocket and, before I had the chance to think about it, pulled up my contacts and made a call.

I worried at my lip as the dial tone rang in my ear, once, twice, thrice, four times before cutting off as a voice took over, "The person you are calling has a voicemail-box that has-"

I frowned as the robotic voice spoke in my ear, telling me that Christine still hadn't set up her voicemail, before ending the call with a sigh, "Guess she's still upset with me." I muttered. I guess it made sense given that disaster of a phone call had happened a little over two hours ago. I had just hoped…

Well, whatever, it wasn't like I didn't have the rest of the day to try and try again. For now though, I still had to get set up in my room, so I put my phone back into my pocket, though not before sending off a text to my wayward friend.

Hey Chris, I made it to Boston in one piece. I'll call you tonight and we can talk about everything.

Even if she didn't want to talk about it, I'd just blow up her phone until she picked up. There was no way I was losing my best friend. Not again.

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