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    “Um, Miss Marina, I don’t think this is the right place.” The boy who was speaking, a small red-haired nine-year-old named Danny, clung tightly to the hands of his two ‘buddies’ in their field trip system. All three of them, along with the rest of the nearly forty children who were still with Marina Dupont after she had taken them away from Crossroads in order to prevent anyone from being able to use them as hostages in the newly-rekindled civil war, stared at the older girl.


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    As for Marina herself, she looked around what was supposed to be a small truckstop somewhere in rural Kansas (was there an urban Kansas?) near the border with Oklahoma. She had thought they could get some snacks there that would help make the kids happy while she planned what was supposed to be the next exchange. She had already given a couple dozen of the children back to their appropriate parents, but the ones from Crossroads kept trying to trick or trap her. For some of them, it was like they almost cared more about punishing her for taking the children away from the school in the first place than they did about getting the kids back. Though she knew a lot of that was her exhaustion and fear talking.


    But this wasn’t a truckstop, and it certainly wasn’t rural Kansas, or anywhere in Kansas for that matter. They were standing in the middle of an old strip mall, surrounded by tall office buildings and other stores. The place was clearly closed at the moment given how late it seemed to be. And that was another problem. When they had passed through the doorway back at that park restroom only a minute earlier, it had barely been ten in the morning. There was nowhere they could’ve ended up in the United States that would have been completely dark with stars out already. Had they somehow gone clear across the ocean? Were they in New Zealand? Wait, no, that didn’t make sense either. New Zealand was so far ahead it would be morning there too. Just the next morning rather than this one. That one. Time zones were weird.


    Russia. They could be in Russia, though even that seemed unlikely. Especially considering the very American signs they could see all around them. No, no, this was America. But… how? Did they travel through time, to a completely different place than what she had intended?


    Marina looked down at the so-called field trip key in her hand. Admittedly, she didn’t know a lot about it. She knew how to use it, and she knew that the person who had donated it to Crossroads many years earlier had dictated that it could only be used for taking the younger children on trips. They themselves were a pacifist, and refused to allow it to be used for violence. Nor would they share the secrets of how it was made.


    What Marina really knew when it came to the incredibly powerful enchantments on the key was that all you had to do was put it in the lock of any door, think of where you wanted to go, and when you opened the door it would create a portal to that place until the door was closed again. Between the key and googling places on her phone, she had been able to take herself and the children she had claimed responsibility for anywhere they wanted to go. Did it… did they damage it somehow? Wait, was this one of those Crossroads tricks?


    No, it couldn’t be that. They already would’ve descended on the group if they were behind this. Maybe Marina had simply overworked it and this was a glitch?


    In the end, only a couple seconds had passed as all that ran through her mind. Finally, Marina simply replied, as calmly as possible, “Don’t worry guys, we’re just on a little adventure right now. It’s a surprise.”


    That message was passed around to the other children, most of whom had begun to spread out to look around at the closed stores. Marina thought about calling them back, but she didn’t want to scare them. So, she looked at her phone instead, trying to bring up the map. At least they could figure out where they were and go from there.


    Except they couldn’t. Her phone had no service. Which was particularly odd, considering it was a magic phone from Crossroads. It should have had service everywhere in the world. Even when there wasn’t a cell signal, it would connect to satellites. Besides which, the technology inside it allowed the phone to reach much further for an actual cell signal than anything a Bystander phone could manage. And it would latch onto any cellular service.


    And yet, there was nothing. Staring at the screen for a moment, Marina slowly lifted her gaze to look out toward the busy street beyond. Cars were going back and forth steadily. It wasn’t like they had missed an apocalypse or something. She could even see some people on their phones. If they had a connection, why didn’t she? This whole thing seemed impossible.


    Maybe it was some sort of magical effect blocking her connection. The thought of that was rather terrifying. Either they had stumbled into something unrelated to them that just happened to include a cell blocking effect, or Crossroads really did have a basic idea of the general area they were in, and had created this effect in an attempt to cut them off from any communication. But even that didn’t really track. Blocking Marina’s cell signal wouldn’t stop them from just using the key to leave. And again, if that was the case, why weren’t they surrounded by a dozen pissed off Heretics? None of this made any sense.


    But in any case, she needed to get a better idea of where they were, phone or no phone. To that end, Marina had just opened her mouth to tell the kids to stay put while she went to talk to one of the passersby to at least get some information. But before the words could come out, the sound of multiple heavy footsteps, jangling chains, and light chuckles filled the air.


    “We-he-he-hell, what do we have loitering around our territory?”


    The man speaking was tall, well over six feet, with red-dyed hair fashioned into a short mohawk. He wore ratty jeans and an old leather jacket over a shirt advertising some sort of band, and carried a long chain with some sort of blade at the end, casually spinning it while walking forward from behind one of the nearby stores. Accompanying him were three guys of similar clothing, one with star-shaped sunglasses, another with spiky green hair, and a third with army camo pants. The first two carried baseball bats, while the latter had a machete. Two girls, one blonde and one red-head, trailed behind. Both were armed with switchblades.


    Taking all that in, Marina gestured for the kids to stay behind her. Despite how young they were, the kids were all well-trained in how to react to potential threats. Eli and Laina, the two oldest at almost thirteen, moved just in front of the other children right at her back. “Is--are they…” the boy murmured a bit fearfully, eyes locked onto the group approaching them.


    Marina hesitated, giving the newcomers another glance before shaking her head. Her Stranger sense wasn’t going off at all, for any of these people. “They’re human, I think,” she whispered before focusing on the man in front with the mohawk. “Hey, sorry, we got turned around from our tour group. Could you tell us where we are?” Asking what city they were in might be going too far, but this could possibly help somewhat. At the very least, it might disarm the situation before it escalated into the violence these people were clearly looking for.


    “Turned around?” Mohawk echoed before glancing toward the others with obvious amusement. “You hear that? They got turned around. Well, babe,” he added while turning back to her with that bladed chain still idly spinning, “Turns out, you all went and got yourselves lost in Ninety-Niner territory. And, from the looks of things, ya ain’t local.”


    Ninety-Niners? What the hell did that mean? Did this have something to do with the Rebellion being restarted somehow? Marina frowned before forcing herself to remain calm, for the sake of the kids lined up behind her. “You’re right, we’re not from around here. So if you could just point us back to a decent cross-street to get our bearings, that’d be great.”


    The man with the star-shaped sunglasses gave a short, yet loud cackle. It was clearly intended to unnerve them. “No, see, we’re the Ninety-Niners. As in Nineteen Ninety Nine. We don’t exactly like outsiders like you and the munchkin squad back there barging in to take advantage of our city. But you just keep coming anyway.”


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Spiky green hair guy gave a quick nod. “Seems like we need to send a bigger, louder message to stay the hell out if you don’t belong here.”


    “Don’t worry,” army camo pants guy added, “we won’t touch the kids. But you? Heh. You’re fair game.”


    “Hey why don’t you morons walk away while you still can!” That was Laina, snapping the words out angrily while poking her head out from behind the older girl. “You’re picking the wrong fight!”


    The group of thugs laughed at that, the blonde girl gesturing with her switchblade. “Oh you think so, huh brat? Well I hate to burst your bubble, but your big sister there, she ain’t gonna be protecting you for much longer.” With that, she gave Mohawk a shove with her free hand. “What’re you waiting for, grab the bitch and let’s show these kids some real fun.”


    With matching dangerous grins, Mohawk and Star Shades came at Marina. It was clear from their relaxed body language that neither of them were expecting much in the way of a fight. They were confident in their weapons and numbers, certain she was a helpless little flower who would barely resist, and might even make some nice pleading sounds for them. They were going to hurt her, or even kill her, just to send a message through the traumatized children behind her for everyone to stay out of their territory.


    Or so they thought.


    As Mohawk reached for her arm with a lecherous smirk, Marina took a quick step forward while pivoting on the toes of her right foot to turn herself sideways with her front facing his side. The grasping hand missed, the guy’s momentum carrying him a step past her and closer to the children. At the same time, Star Shades went to grab the other arm, not yet realizing that his partner had missed his own grab.


    Marina was a willowy girl, who looked as though she would break in the slightest breeze. That appearance was phenomenally deceptive, however. Which both of her attackers learned in short order. Mohawk became well-acquainted with that fact as Marina’s foot lashed out and backwards, colliding with the side of his leg with enough force to snap the limb sideways, catastrophically breaking it in multiple spots. And Star Shades learned the truth when her hand snapped out with snake-like speed to catch his wrist, twisting it around hard enough to break both it and his arm at the elbow. As he was reflexively bent to the side, she turned, dragging him by that broken arm in order to throw the man down on top of his already-collapsed companion.


    Both men lay there, howling in agony as they clutched their shattered limbs.


    Spiked Green Hair Guy and Army Pants were already rushing her with their weapons (a bat and machete respectively) raised and ready to swing. That whole thing had happened too quickly for them to understand what was going on. All they knew in that second was that their partners were on the ground, screaming in pain, and this helpless-looking girl was responsible.


    As the bat swung at her face and the blade was driven toward her stomach, Marina focused on two of her powers at once. The first transformed her head into a shimmering water form, allowing the bat to pass right through it without any apparent effect other than sending some of that liquid spraying out to the side, while the man wielding it staggered with a yelp of surprise.


    At the same time, the machete’s momentum was instantly halted as a thin, yet strong metal pole emerged from the blade itself and extended down at an angle to hit the ground so the machete couldn’t move forward. That particular power allowed Marina to create shapes out of any metal surface within a short distance of her. Which she immediately used again to send a fist-shaped length of metal out the top of the blade to collide with the man’s chin, making him stagger backward while releasing his grip on the weapon.


    By that point, Spiked Hair was still staggering off balance thanks to the force with which he had swung that bat as it passed right through her water-like head. Before he could recover, she used the other half of her ability to transform part of her body into liquid. Namely, transferring the force that her water-like head had been struck with into something else in range. Spiked Hair’s stomach, in this case. In that instant, the man took all the force and damage as though he had slammed that bat into his own torso. He doubled over, dropping the bat with a cry.


    Before the falling bat could reach the ground, however, Marina shifted her water-transforming power to her arm rather than her head. It only worked on a piece of her body at a time. The second her limb was transformed, she snapped it out and downward. In its liquid-like shape, the arm extended to catch the bat with her still flesh-and-blood hand. Immediately, she brought it around, liquid arm still stretched out two feet longer than normal so the bat could crash into the head of Army Pants while he was still staggering from that blow to the face from the metal fist that had emerged out of his machete. He dropped instantly, groaning in pain.


    Barely a handful of seconds had passed, and all four men were down, leaving the two girls staring in shock and confusion. For a fleeting moment, Marina wondered what the Bystander Effect would show these people, what they would actually believe had happened here.


    “Touched!” the red-head blurted, scrambling backwards while dragging the blonde with her. “She’s fucking Touched! What the fuck?!”


    “She ain’t the only one.” That comment came from behind both women, as a man wearing what looked like a Bystander hockey uniform came into view. His face was obscured behind the black and red hockey mask he wore, and he had his hands raised. “You think you’re hot shit, huh bitch? Well let Suckshot show you just how shit you really are.” With that, he created two black, volleyball-sized orbs in front of his hands. Marina immediately felt the orbs start to pull her off her feet with incredible force. Worse, the kids behind her were being yanked that way too, all of them crying out as they flailed and were sent flying toward the man.


    No. In an instant, her spear-like corseque was in one hand as she drew it out of the secret slot on her belt. Her thumb pressed a button on the end of it, and with a thought, she summoned five enormous hard-light bear paws from the ground. The first appeared in front of her, blocking the pulling force from those orbs so she could stand without being yanked that way. The other four, meanwhile, formed a wall around the kids, allowing them to safely hunker down there. The solid-light bear paws were several feet tall, and acted like forcefields in this case.


    This guy had powers. He wasn’t a Bystander. Either he was another Heretic, possibly a Natural (though of what she couldn’t say), or possibly some sort of Stranger that didn’t set off her sense. Either way, he was a threat. And she knew how to deal with threats.


    From the safety of her paw-shield, Marina plucked the machete from where it had fallen. A thought made the metal pole and fist that had emerged from either side of the blade vanish. Flipping the weapon over in one hand, she gave it a toss around the side of her shield. The machete immediately flew that way, sucked in by those orbs the man had created. At the very second that the weapon was about to be pulled all the way into one of them, Marina made a dozen different thin, razor-like blades extend from it. All twelve found their marks, slicing through the man’s chest, stomach, neck, and face.


    He dropped instantly. There was no pain, no cry, nothing. He had been run through in twelve different places, and was dead before he had the slightest idea of what was happening.


    Marina, bracing herself, felt a rush of power and pleasure that left her slumped against the forcefield paw briefly. Then she was back on her feet, disabling all the bear paws at once. While the assorted thugs were still reacting to what had just happened, she focused on what she had seen the strangely dressed man do. A thought allowed her to summon one of those same black orbs in front of her free hand. Both girls, all four injured men, and the dead guy, were yanked off the ground and pulled straight toward her. At the last moment, before they would have collided with her, she summoned three more bear paws with the weapon in her other hand. They grabbed the group, slamming them into the ground before holding them there.


    “How the fuck many powers does that cunt have?!” the blonde was screaming. The answer she got from her male companions was mostly an assortment of pained cries and sobbing.


    Leaving the group there, Marina pivoted back and pulled the field trip key out of her pocket. “Come on, guys, I don’t know what’s going on here, but we’re getting--” She put the key in the nearby door, only to blink when nothing happened. The key fit, as it fit every lock, but it didn’t create a portal. It didn’t turn. It didn’t even unlock the door. What… how? Huh?


    “Put down the weapon.” The new voice came from nearby, leaving Marina and her charges to spin that way. A woman stood there, wearing a blue and white camo uniform with a combat helmet that contained extra mesh to cover her face, and blue lenses over her eyes.


    “Sorry,” the woman announced with her hands up. “I know it was self defense. But whatever happened here, you just…” She glanced toward the figures being covered by the glowing bear paw shapes. “Look, I’m not sure what’s going on here, but you were protecting yourself and those kids. We just have to sort the whole thing out. I’m Brumal, from the Spartans. I’m here to help. So just put the weapon down and I promise, everything’s gonna be okay.


    “But first, who are you, who are these kids, and what are you doing in Detroit?”