“We should have contacted the others first.” As he made that announcement, the achingly handsome black man known as Geta strode ahead of his three companions. They were moving through a dark and unused subway tunnel deep under the streets of New York. It was technically pitch-black down here, but none of them were adversely affected by that. They all possessed well-over a dozen powers which allowed them to see perfectly in the dark. Geta himself had been the Natural Heretic of one of the bird-like Lavinsi even before joining Crossroads, and the enhanced vision that gave him would have been enough to see through this place just fine. When so many other visual gifts were added into the equation, the tunnel might as well have been lit by the sun. Between that and the rest of their vast array of enhanced senses, no one down here would be able to hide from them. No matter what magic the people they sought employed, these four members of the Crossroads Committee could hunt them down with little effort.


    And yet, nor would their quarry see or hear their captors approaching. The quartet of powerful leaders had cloaked themselves in a vast array of stealth powers and magic. Very specifically, that cloaking magic included a little extra to hide them from any form of Necromancy. The Committee had quite a bit of experience with that sort of thing through their actions against Fossor. No amount of spy-ghosts or similar tricks that had been arranged through the tunnels would be able to send back any warning.


    With all of that put together, no one besides another member of their group would have even the slightest chance of noticing them before it was too late. Some might have called it overkill considering their specific targets, and yet, they had suffered enough setbacks and problems at the hands of these particular people that they refused to take any chances. This simple action would take the head off of the dangerous and staggeringly shortsighted rebellion.


    “And allow them time to warn those we seek?” Litonya’s voice was as dark as the tunnel they were traveling through. “I think not. We four, I know, can be trusted beyond any doubt. Further than that, I could not swear to it. Not these days.” Her face twisted a little in anger at the very thought of how much the Atherby woman had damaged their society, her somewhat-recently fully regrown hands clenching tightly. “We will take the Chambers and Sinclaire girls and put a stop to this entire situation immediately. Within another hour, we will have all the leverage to make certain the fools are brought to heel so that we may begin the healing process.”


    That was what these four members of the Committee were here for, the reason they had gone to such extreme lengths to conceal themselves and track down what amounted to a few seemingly ordinary student-level Heretics. One of their many loyal spotters had noticed those two, along with a couple others, descend into these tunnels. They were carrying enough bags of magical supplies to make it clear that they planned to be there for a while. What exactly they planned to do with those supplies, what sort of idiotic spell they were trying to cast, was unknown. But it provided the Crossroads Loyalists with an opportunity. Taking Avalon and Felicity into custody would, at the very least, severely cripple the rebellion, if not cut its head off completely. The Atherby woman had already proven that she could be manipulated through the lives of her offspring. And yes, there was some level of distaste at the thought of what they were planning. But this small action would ensure the survival of their society, and of their planet at large. All of humanity would one day thank them for doing whatever it took to prevent these stubborn children from blindly marching the lives of their entire species into the pits of hell through their ridiculous naivety.


    “No harm will come to them.” That was Ruthers, the third member of their group. His voice was as firm as Litonya’s was dark, making it clear just how serious he was about that rule. “We are not savage monsters, whatever they may think. They are misguided, but they truly believe that they are doing the right thing. We are the adults in this situation. There will be no showboating, no extra punishment just to make any of us feel better or to massage our egos. We subdue and capture them as quickly and painlessly as possible, and then we leave with them. That is all. No taunting, no toying with them, no holding anything over their heads, nothing. And do not argue with them. This is neither the time nor the place. The sooner this is over, the better everyone will be, including them.” He gave a heavy sigh. “They just don’t understand that yet. Someday, they will, and this will be over.”


    With a sly grin, the final member of their quartet, Antaeus, chuckled. The almost obscenely muscled, seven-foot-tall man with his long dark hair and thick mustache, both dotted with signs of gray, flashed a smirk toward Ruthers. “Are you sure you’re not just afraid that another little girl is going to beat you up again? Maybe she’ll sing the Gummi Bears song at you this time.” His own words made the man guffaw out loud. “Guuuummmi bears! Bouncing here and there and everywhere!” It was… odd hearing the massive mountain of a man belting out such a song, particularly given it was surprisingly on-key.


    The word about Ruthers’ encounter with the disguised Guinevere, and the way she had utterly flummoxed him with her Darkwing Duck reference had spread even through the loyalist camp. Of course, many of them hadn’t understood the reference either, but between seeking out answers through Bystander sources and simply asking those who did recognize it, the point had been made. Now, of all things, Darkwing Duck had somehow become a relatively popular bit of material among them. Some among Crossroads, like Antaeus, had even begun looking through other similar Bystander cartoons to extend the joke.


    It may have seemed odd that the loyalists would embrace the image of something like that when it had been used to harm one of their leaders, but after so many years spent running a school for teenagers, Ruthers knew the truth. Even those who were deeply and overwhelmingly loyal to their cause enjoyed the thought of a stuffy old authority figure taking a shot to the nose. Which was fine. As long as they continued to do their jobs, he didn’t fault them for that, and mostly ignored the jabs at his ego.


    But Antaeus was not some ordinary student, not some youth being playfully immature or just letting off steam. He was a member of the Committee, and it was time for him to act like it, rather than take any opportunity he had to sow discord. Ruthers had been against allowing him to join their group in the first place, and nothing the man said or done since then had convinced him that his misgivings were wrong.


    Unfortunately, just as his mouth opened to admonish him, Geta stopped short and held his fist for them to halt. There, straight ahead of them, the tunnel opened up into an unused subway station. Four figures were sitting in a circle on the tracks in the middle of that station. The Committee members examined them carefully. The Sinclaire girl was there, along with both of Liam Mason’s daughters, Sarah and Sandoval, as well as that Native American Bystander-kin, the one called Aylen. There was no sign of the Chambers girl just yet, but she had to be nearby. Perhaps she had descended further through these tunnels in search of something else, or had even–


    “Hello!”


    Despite all of their vast array of enhanced senses, detection powers, alarm spells, and so on, all four of the Committee members were taken entirely by surprise when that loud, cheerful voice spoke up from directly behind them. It should have been impossible. Hell, it should have been beyond impossible for anyone to even see them, let alone take the entire group off-guard . And yet, there was no mistaking it. This wasn’t a dream or some sort of shared hallucination. That voice… her voice… was right there.


    Ruthers knew what he would see as he spun around that way. And yet, even then he was still taken aback. Yes, the Chambers girl, Felicity, was right behind them, as expected. But she wasn’t standing. Instead she was hanging upside down, a long furry tail extending up to grip something on the ceiling of the tunnel. She was smiling in a way Ruthers was pretty sure he had never seen before, arms spread wide as though ready to embrace them. “Thank you guys so much! I was so cocking bored here, you have no idea! It was painful, physically painful, seriously. I mean, how long do I have to sit in the dark and wait for a decent fight, huh? I mean, maybe I’m just anxious. I’ve been stuck in places for a long time before, and I have no desire to do that again.”


    Something was drastically wrong here. Through his senses, Ruthers could pick out the other four students rising to their feet, but they didn’t come running to help, or even run away. A quick use of a remote-vision power revealed that they were indeed simply standing there watching. The magic that had hidden the Committee members was gone now, that much was clear. Whatever had happened, things weren’t going as they were supposed to. And the Felicity girl was behaving oddly. No, something was definitely wrong. They had to–


    “Oh, you want a fight, little girl?” Antaeus, who had been at the back of their group, was the nearest one to the dangling figure. “Be careful what you ask for, you might just–” His fist lashed out so quickly even Ruthers didn’t see him start to move. This was a man who was a match for Hercules himself, particularly when he was standing with his feet planted on the ground. His strength was at its peak when he wasn’t moving at all, of course, and decreased whenever he did move. But even then, he was staggeringly powerful. When the boosts from the Committee were added in, nothing could stand against a blow from the man. Not when he wasn’t holding back, and he certainly wasn’t now. Despite all of Ruthers’ warnings, this shortsighted, temperamental idiot was going to put his fist through Joselyn Atherby’s daughter’s head!


    And then his fist stopped. The deafening sound of a loud clap filled the tunnel, the resulting concussive shockwave so strong it made other Committee members stumble back a step. But Antaeus didn’t stumble. He couldn’t. His fist was held firmly in the grasp of Felicity Chambers, as she continued to hang upside down by that tail. Her smile hadn’t dimmed in the slightest. If anything, it was even wider. Disturbingly so. “Oh boy,” she remarked, even as Antaeus visibly struggled to yank his hand away from her. “I sure hope you can do better than that. I don’t wanna go back to being bored again.”


    Despite their surprise, the other members of the Committee acted immediately. Ruthers’ right hand snapped out, conjuring a large, invisible fist that would grab the girl and yank her down from the ceiling. At the same time, his other hand summoned a blast of teleportation energy that would transport that stubborn idiot, Antaeus, away from her as well. Ruthers was tempted to teleport him off into the Amazon. After all, he had already screwed up this entire situation by trying to kill the Chambers girl straight off the bat. But that would have been pointless. The other man had every power Ruthers himself did, and would simply return. Besides, there was something about this, something that made him think getting rid of one of their own number, no matter how idiotic he might have been, was a bad idea.


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    Meanwhile, Litonya produced one of their secret weapons, a small silver disc with a spell inscribed on it. At a single word from her, the disc slapped itself against the Chambers girl’s forehead as the magic on it activated. It was a very specific spell, one they had acquired after months of work and research. It would force whatever being was currently possessing that girl right now to leave her body. Litonya had been intent on finding something that could do such a thing after her own encounter with the possessed girl over the summer. The creature who had used Felicity’s body to do so much damage to a member of the Committee… that was clearly what they were facing here, yet again. But this time they were prepared. This time, that magic would eject the Stranger from Felicity, separating them so both could be contained.


    But just in case that wasn’t enough, Geta had already teleported himself over to Felicity’s four friends. He would contain them within a forcefield and compel the girl as well as whoever was possessing her to surrender. Not that Ruthers believed the creature puppeting her body would care about that, but at the very least, once they were separated, seeing her companions trapped would convince her not to try remerging with the Stranger. The theory was that no matter how skilled the possessor was, they would be severely crippled without a Heretic body to possess with all of its powers. They would separate Felicity from the Stranger and contain both of them that way.


    Except… the spell failed. It shouldn’t have. It couldn’t have. But nothing happened when the magic triggered. There was no separation. And as Ruthers’ invisible fist attempted to close around the girl to drag her off the ceiling, she slipped right through it, twisting right between its fingers before dropping to the floor, inverting partway to land smoothly on her feet. The fist grabbed empty air.


    Thanks to the group’s senses, they could see everything going on in the open station and attached tunnel. So they all saw what happened next. Felicity, standing in front of Ruthers and slightly to the side of Litonya, yanked the spell disc off her forehead. With it tucked between two fingers, she muttered, “Rude, did I ask for jewelry?” and then gave it a toss toward Ruthers himself. At the same time, that tail of hers wrapped around Litonya’s raised hands, binding them together even as the woman started to charge a blast of energy from her palms. The blast fizzled and died as Litonya was ripped off the floor by the tail and slammed full-force into the ceiling. Felicity had sent a member of the Committee through the ceiling and, unless Ruthers missed his guess, all the way up to the streets above, with what looked like a casual flick of a tail she shouldn’t even have had.


    Like the failure of the spell, this should have been impossible. The Committee were given so many speed enhancements that avoiding the tail or the tossed coin should’ve been child’s play. Less than that. But this Felicity was just as fast as they were, if not faster. Litonya barely had time to make a noise in the back of her throat before she was slamming through the bricks at the top of the tunnel, and Ruthers’ snapped his head to the side just a bit too late to avoid it entirely, feeling the metal disk slice through his forehead to draw a line of actual blood.


    But that wasn’t all. At the exact same time, as Geta appeared in front of the other four Heretic students, Felicity also appeared next to him. She gave the startled man a Cheshire grin before grabbing his arm. “Hey, hey! Didn’t you hear me say I was bored? You four make a good fight, stop trying to ruin it by giving me more help! That’s totally against the rules. See?” That version of Felicity pointed to a sign that had apparently been spray painted onto the nearby wall, which read, ‘Let me fight them by myself.’ It was circled and underlined several times.


    And also at the exact same time, as Antaeus appeared right where Ruthers had teleported him, yet another version of Felicity dropped from the ceiling to land on his shoulders. She clung to him like a–well, like a monkey, given the tail. “Don’t be mad at your friend!” she chirped. “We can still play! Just you and me, what do you say?”


    Antaeus bellowed, trying to slam his head backwards into her face, but the girl simply scampered down off his shoulders and around to the front of him, tail wrapped around his waist while she clutched his biceps. “You’re very strong. Do you work out? I can give you some regimen tips.”


    All of that happened at once, with three separate Felicities appearing at the same time. Geta was grabbed by the arm, Antaeus had one drop onto his shoulders and crawl around to his front, and Ruthers had a third throw the spell disc at his head, clipping his cheek in the process, while Litonya was hurled through the ceiling by that tail. All simultaneously.


    No, no this would not happen. Not this time. It was impossible. They had been ready for the creature who had possessed Felicity before and posed such a threat. Why didn’t it work? What–what was this monster? Ruthers’ right fist lashed out. That was all quite enough. He had tried to play nice, but it was obvious this was not Felicity. It was time to put an end to her charade, kill whatever creature was impersonating her, then take these other four in. At the same time, his other hand flicked upwards to summon over a hundred powerful lasers, all of which crisscrossed through the air around each other from completely random spots surrounding the creature posing as Felicity. There was no room for her to avoid the lasers, no space to escape. Not that she would have the opportunity, when she was sent reeling by his fist.


    As though that wasn’t enough, Litonya had dropped back through the hole in the ceiling, a scream of rage directing from the Native American woman’s mouth as she sent ten different twisting strands of bright white flames and dark blue ice from her extended fingers, which would alternately melt or freeze anything they touched.


    And yet, the creature posing as Felicity wasn’t stopped. Somehow she twisted aside from Ruthers’ incoming fist, allowing it to sail past her cheek without actually touching her. Before he could recover, she caught his extended wrist with one hand and yanked him forward while backpedaling. Her foot collided with his back to propel him directly into the path of his own lasers. Then she launched herself upward, somehow managing to twist in the air to avoid every incoming line of fire or ice, before her hand caught Litonya by the face while the woman was still in mid-scream. The Committee member’s descent was halted entirely, before she was once more slammed into the ceiling, creating a hole directly next to the first one.


    With a bellow of anger and disbelief as his own lasers tore through him in a dozen spots before he could halt them, Ruthers transported himself into the center of the station, directly next to Geta after the man ripped his arm away from his own duplicated ‘Felicity.’ Litonya appeared beside them, bloodied, bruised, and covered in debris. And Antaeus transported there as well, catching hold of the laughing third version of ‘Felicity’ before hurling her away from him with a curse.


    The four Committee members had regrouped right where the students should’ve been, but they weren’t there anymore. Instead, the group of traitors had appeared up on the platform above the tunnel, where passengers would wait for the trains to arrive.


    All three duplicate versions of the creature posing as Felicity regrouped as well, standing as a trio in front of Ruthers and the others. They spoke together as one. “Yeah, you’re right, this probably isn’t very fair, is it? I did say I wanted a challenge. Okay then!” And with that, two of the duplicates vanished, leaving only one. That ‘Felicity’ cracked her knuckles, tilted her head from one side to the other, then bounced up and down on her toes, punching the air a few times as though warming up. “Let’s do this!” In mid-bounce, she stopped short and gestured graciously. “Oh, I mean unless you need to sit down for a minute, maybe get a glass of water? Does anybody need some Tylenol?”


    “Put her down!” Litonya all-but screeched, her words met with a bellow of enraged agreement from Antaeus.


    Ruthers tried to tell them both to wait, but they were already moving. He and Geta exchanged looks. Their only choices now were to back up their two partners, or leave them to fight this creature alone. In the end, it wasn’t really a choice at all. The two launched themselves after the others.


    Four Committee members, all bearing down on a single figure. Not only did they move faster than the human brain could process, but time itself was completely frozen in that moment, for everyone but them. They were freezing time and moving at super speed within that time-freeze. On top of that, all four of them had flooded the entire station with false images of themselves, illusions to distract their opponent that were coming at her from every side and angle. But these weren’t simply visual illusions. They would set off every sense their target had as though they were real. And the entire area around this ‘Felicity’ was filled with over a dozen layered clouds of various colored fog. Some were meant to disorient, some would put their target to sleep, others made them itch uncontrollably, or slowed their reactions. Then, of course, there were the teleportation blockers. All four of them deployed several each in that moment, cutting off each and every form of instant transportation.


    Time freeze, super speed, distracting illusions, fogs to blind, make their target tired, itchy, lethargic, or just create a coughing fit, teleportation blockers to keep her rooted where she was. This was going to be over very soon.


    *****


    It was over soon. But not in the way the Committee had expected. Oh, they had landed their share of blows on the monster, that was for sure. Even now, she stood a bit away from them, face bruised, a scorch mark over her temple, shirt ripped and bloodied in several places, a black eye already swelling, one ear deeply cut, and other signs of damage. She had been hurt.


    And yet, so had the four Committee members. Four of them, all attacking at once, and they showed just as many signs of damage as their target. All four were panting, slumping a bit as they stared at the strange, impossible figure they had tried so hard over the past two minutes to put on the ground.


    But she wasn’t down. No, even with all the blows they had landed, blows she returned in kind, the creature would not fall down. Instead, she spat a bit of blood at the ground and offered a grin that showed a few missing teeth. “I was right, you really can fight! This is the best day of my life! Come on, let’s go again, you got it this time! Only she shouldn’t lead.” Her hand gestured toward the panting Litonya. “She always comes in on the left and it’s really easy to predict, so maybe someone else should take the lead. How about you?” She looked toward Geta eagerly. “Just make sure you don’t put so much weight on your right leg when you kick. When I see you shift like that, you might as well be holding up a sign about what you’re gonna do. I mean, sorry for backseat coaching here and all that, but when am I gonna get another chance for a fight like this? I’ve gotta make the most of it.”


    Ruthers and the other three glanced to one another. Something was very wrong here. Something they couldn’t possibly anticipate or understand. They needed to find out more. Which meant, painful as it was… they needed to leave.


    ‘Felicity’ seemed to see that realization on their faces, blurting a quick, “Hey wait no, don’t go! I’ll fight with one hand behind my back, I’ll close my eyes, I’ll–”


    It was too late. The four of them made their painful decision and vanished.


    “Awwwwww!” Sun Wukong lamented loudly while slumping over in disappointment as he addressed the four students. “You guys were right. They really are evil.”


    “It’s okay,” Avalon informed him. “We got what we came for.


    “The key to Raduriel’s hidden workshop.”