Aura heard the train whistle sound and ran to the edge of the bridge and watched as the train began to move. She knew the kid's had been moved to the train, the last Mystic had he called himself had been quite forthcoming on that much. She swore, knowing she had no time to get down to the train and stop it or get on through a door. Instead Aura took a running start and leapt over the low concrete wall of the bridge. She watched for a few moments as the trained passed quickly beneath her picking up speed, before she slammed into the top of it, almost sliding off, except she drove an Aura sword into the roof and then pulled herself to her feet, as a man quickly crested a ladder.

Somthing was wrong, Aura knew it as she the strange glowing red blade struck her aura, the blade only sank half through her aura, splitting her still dialing phone in half. but it worried Aura it had made it that far when it should have stopped as it hit. She dodged the next blow, her own stroke blocked my a second glowing red blade. Aura was considering lethal force against this mutant as she was simply out of time, but then the idiot cleared her conscience as he threw a ball of flame at her after a strange gesture. The ball missed and flew off past her.

"We are Mystic, we are not abominations like you" he said. So these were the creatures the Syndicate had scant reports on. Their existence bothered Aura down to her core. If nature, if Alpha had made Mystics? Did that mean mutant kind had failed in their role? that she had failed in her role? Was it because

Aura let his blade bite, again her Aura proving less effective then it should have but holding. The young Mystic's eyes opened wide as Aura's blade came up, splitting the man nearly in two. She looked at her hand still holding the broken phone and threw it off the side of the train, just as the bullets began to streak by from the next car's roof hatches. As the Train hit nearly fifty, Aura made slow but steady progress, untill another gesture and this time an invisible wall of force struck aura and threw her back, she landed hanging from the last car, but dropped down seeing the door. three strokes later, the door was behind the train as Aura entered the last car.

She made her was to the next car, which was a flat open car empty of cargo. Their was no way to know where the Kid's were but those who took them, this strange cult, knew she was here and what's more, as five men walked out of the next car to greet her both with red blades of various types that all seemed to burn, they seemed to know how to fight her, she thought not realizing her Aura was just not able to take magic as well. She charged the group, blocking one of their blades with one sword and swinging at another opponent who managed to block just in time.

Aura watched in shock as a white blast of lightning missed her by a hair and ripped into a store front, Aura had no time to look at the blast, as the gas station went up in a fireball behind Aura, as she danced in meelee. Aura had no idea a Helicopter above was broadcasting the entire thing live for the last five minutes of the brawl.

She stirred, then she struggled. The side of her face pulsed, a throb of pain. Maybe that was what had woken her. The pain. And, the tightness. Her struggle accomplished nothing. In her disoriented state, that was far worse than the pain. She could not move. She could not see. No orange. No nothing. What, Lenna wondered, the hell was going on here?

As she lay on her side, rocking with the motion of... of something. She racked her mind in an attempt to recall what had happened and where she was.

Then.

It had been a fairly usual day. She had been out shopping with her aunt. Such a strange thing, having an aunt. It was something Lenna still was not used to.

Her arms had been filled with bags. She had turned to say something— her aunt had been several feet behind, just taking a step out of the store. Laughing, as she followed Lenna into the light of day. Then, there had been an impact, as a man had bumped into her side. Muttered words. She had opened her mouth to speak with him, perhaps apologize for the purely accidental collision. Her eyes had drifted his way. He had been wiggling his fingers, like—

Something tugging at her head. A look of victory on his face. In her minds eye, Lenna could still recall the face. Perhaps she had committed it to memory, deep down knowing of his planned assault. Brown hair, cut short. Higher in the forehead area. No combover. Wide forehead, high hairline. Receding? Square jaw. And blue eyes. Of course, to her it would have all been shown in tones of orange, right? Right. Wrong.

Wait. What?

They were on a crowded city street. Her powers... the world appeared normal, in living colors. No dark orange filter. Did that mean— was a null nearby? Aura had spoken to her of such things. But— Lenna did not have the time to think on the matter, and the man with the blue eyes made a forked finger gesture with one hand, while scooping the other in an underhanded wave. Her whole world grew black, as tightness surrounded her. Tugging at her scalp. And then— impact. A memory of a scream. Her aunt?

Darkness.

Now.

The darkness around her smelled like mangoes. The thing that was binding her, it bound her hands at the wrist, her arms at the elbow. Pinned them to her sides, and covered her face. This thing. It smelled like her shampoo?
Huh.

A thought struck her, much in the same way something had struck her face to knock her unconscious earlier that day. Was she wrapped... was she tied up... in her mother loving hair?!

Yes. To an outside observer, the young woman in black slacks and orange and grey winter coat would have been a sight. On her side, surrounded by loops and swathes of long brown hair. It covered her eyes, but left the lower half of her face open to air. The majority of her was simply covered. Covered in her own hair.

The mystic had performed a ritual to make the hair grow, and to make it clasp. Bind. His choice of magic was the kind that shifted bodies, and manipulated the very structure of peoples’ cells. And he had used it to give her long hair, then tie her up in it. Though she knew nothing of magic. So to Lenna, this man was a mutant. A hair manipulation master. She wished to spit in his face and share the irony with him of how his own hair had decided to begin leaving him, even when he could control hair itself. What a resounding endorsement of his own flaccid incompetence! What meager skill! The moron!

He had gotten the drop on her, certainly, but what a loser. What a fool. Once she was out of this, she would make him pay. He had not brought the null. That had been a miracle in his favor, or else he never would have succeeded in this thing, whatever it was he was planning to do.

And her aunt. What fear she would have felt. Oh yes, he would pay for having made her aunt fear. Perhaps the woman had already called for police officers. Perhaps this was one reason the helicopters Lenna was currently unaware or were flying over the scene? Or perhaps not.

Did she have her cellular phone on her? She could wiggle enough to try and shift to one side and pat at her pocket to see... and... yes. She had her phone there. There was a hardness of a case.

Cool. The fool. If nothing else, SUPER would be able to note her location. She hated them. But if she got the chance, perhaps she could call them in as a fiery salvo from above. Like they do in those video games she had seen people play at the mansion. An aerial strike? Only with more rescue, most likely. Even if she trusted them not at all. She was going through her options here, people. The things one thinks when bound and in the dark are far different than the things one thinks in the light. On the topic of bindings... they had not bound her mouth.

Her throat was dry, and had a slight stammer to it as she tried a new tact. Speaking.

”He-hello? Is th-there any one near? My captor? Balding man? Or, well, anyone other than that small prick?” Lenna grimaced. Not her best commentary, but she did not see a lot she had to work with here.

Were there, perhaps, others in this vehicle that even now bumped along on its path? Had this man been working with others, after all? Was this, perhaps, a child kidnapping ring of some sort?

If it is, it is the most foolish, inept one I have ever encountered Lenna thought. Not that she had encountered any in the past, other than maybe that one time...? But... they really had moved in broad daylight. Visible for the love of god. There had been Witnesses.

If only she did not need to see to utilize her powers... which begged the question. Did she need to see in order to utilize her powers? Or could she move something, if she were close?

The plan was going smashingly, so far. They had four mutie subjects so far, two of which were younger children with very visibly mutations and two teens. All were stowed away in a cargo compartment of the train, while the rest of the group were stationed about as guards. That had hoped for one more to make five, but... oh well, time was growing short.

"Erin, call your dog back. We need to go. Train is leaving in five."

The young mage in training nodded, pressed his hands together, and focused. He had a 'dog' constructed out of beauty bark running around the city, that he had been using earlier to help him hunt down possible targets.

A blue, glowing circle made up of runes appeared on the floor at his feet, and with a crackle of static energy, a figure appeared within it.

"Nani??"

A cat stood there, eyes wide and tails straight in the air, with a hunk of bark gripped in her teeth.

All four people and the feline exchanged tense glances, and then she made a run for it.

"Catch it!"

"What is this!?"

Hiyori spent a few minutes zipping between legs, biting reaching fingers, and trying to scale the metal walls of the compartment they were in, Yowling and growling like a cat being murdered when someone imagined a red velvet bag out of thin air.

She had just started to form the large body of the Shogun, who would have filled most of the space within the boxcar and generally ruined the four people's day, when the bag zipped over on its own and swallowed her up with one more screech of complaint.

An older man went and collected the bag, holding it up and out while the cat inside kicked and clawed at the fabric, still yelling, but now in angry, muffled Japanese.

"... Damnit, Erin! You need to focus when you summon things!"

The young man smiled sheepishly and rubbed at his short shaven hair. "S-sorry."

Hiyori ended up being tossed in with the rest of the captured mutants, literally, and hisses loudly when the bag hit the floor and rolled. A door slammed and then... silence.

She could hear muted sniffling from somewhere nearby, but couldn't' see anything. She tried to summon up another construct, in the form of her sister and unknowingly created it on the outside of the train. It ran forward into a wall and just... kept running. Like a glitched video game character stuck in a wall.

Eventually, the train started to move and she settled into tense inactivity in her bag, fighting off the general sense of calm the darkness tried to impart on her. Her human brain knew something wasn't right.

Eventually, a voice spoke up and her ears twitched. It was the first other person to speak since she had been bag-napped. None of the others she would hear had yet to utter a word.

"... I am here." The voice was feminine. Seemed... scared? Stressed? Angry? She couldn't tell. She could recall there being a balding man in the initial group of people she had appeared by, though.

"I believe the strange humans left. Are.... are you okay? I am in a bag, so I cannot see anyone." She stood as much as she could, yawned and stretched, and proceeded to resume the seemingly futile attempt at digging herself out of the bag. Whatever it was made of was durable.

"I can hear a few others in here with us, but they have yet to say anything."

Scratchscratchscratchscratchscratch

The cars, busy streets pack with people, extremely rude people, constant threats and strange daily occurrences, those she could all live with. The cold though.. well she'd rather spend some time in gakido then have to keep enduring this norther climate! So she had been on the hunt for some warmer clothes and also attempting the impossibility of trying to find cute warm clothes made considerably more difficult by her minimal budget. Warm clothes tended to come in two flavors. Looks nice but not really warm, or warm and looks like something a construction worker would wear. Eventually she settled for some thermal leggings (cause, ugh, pants were not happening) a thick sweater and a purple faux fur lined coat.

The new warmth was much appreciated as she trudged down the cold street, a bit miffed her sister hadn't shown up to help. As a resounding explosion occurred nearby she shook her head and sighed, her knew clothes were going to get ruined she just knew it, breaking into a run that took her over the nearby buildings with her power. Slipping out of sight before donning her kabuki mask and letting her power fully flourish out. Her tail snapping into place behind her and the world seeming more whole as she did so. Tossing her backpack onto a nearby roof as she passed by keeping the long art tube with her.

Wit the boost of speed and cutting off the train as it rounded a bend she dropped behind some angry looking men facing off against.. ah crap. "So you guys need some backup?"

One of the men whirled stunned then screeched. "It's another one of those freaks!" Hmph rude! Before he could finish whatever his muttering was about she kicked him of the edge of the train and the whole situation devolved into a mess of close ranged combat and spells.

She needed an opening. Between the six men, her options were shrinking to avoid injury of herself, she thought blocking another blow that seemed to push into her aura with strange ease. She expanded her blades making them thicker, preparing to charge. Her Aura was working at what she felt was around half of it's normal strength against these guys. Her plans however were dashed however when a pink haired girl dropped onto the train and seemed to think Aura in the wrong. Aura could not blame the girl, she had certainly caused plenty of death and destruction over the years and not every one took comfort in the vast bulk of Aura's kills being anti mutant humans.

The fools however corrected the mistake herself and Aura watched as a man flew from the train and smiled. The Mystic closest to her glanced over at her comrade. Aura's swiftly brought an aura blade up, and bisected the woman from her hip to her shoulder. Speaking even as she did so keeping her new friend in the courner of her eye, her Japanese "Hello, my pretty pink haired friend. I would dance with you until the moon was full and our bodies stripped of energy and stress. Slay me later as you have already slain my heart, but these animals steal mutant kid's and that must come first." she said her voice almost a pur, even as she dashed forward, seeing the lightning guy aim at Himari.

Aura struck the man, forcing his arm up, as she cut into it, the bolt streaking over head and striking the front end of the news helicopter, whose lights began shutting off and one engine began smoking as it began to spiral down as the train rounded a bend. As Aura drove a blade into the man's chest, she felt the impact and was thrown from her feet even as she finished taking his arm. The helicopter struck the train car just ahead of himari and Aura lodging itself between car's. Speaking of car;s Aura heard more then one she assumed, take the tail of the helicopter across their hoods, as the car himari and Aura were on shook violently threatening to derail itself. Aura watched as the remaining three faded away and appeared on the next car moments later, as the car Aura and Himari were on began to lurch to the side. "I'll cut the car loose, can you take them?" she asked her blades fading away and instead her feet had frown aura spikes ripping into the train car roof as she ran toward the next car. The lurching car causing the car's further ahead to shake and tremble.

A voice replied to her query. It, too, sounded feminine. Which made two females kidnapped, at the very least. Creeps.

This girl was in a bag. And Lenna heard... scratching? Her mind ran wild trying to imagine where the scratching had originated, and how a bag could contain a girl. It must have been some bag. Or some girl.

”My head hurts,” She stated. Her voice had a Spanish tang to it, like someone from Colombia, like Shakira. For lack of a better celebrity example. ”My head hurts. I was hit. And am bound. By... hair. Fuck. But we will escape. Yes, yes.”

They would.

Another voice piped up. For the first time in minutes, it was not a feminine one. “Hey all. Haru here. Just another unboxing video. Are we all ready for this?”

Lenna heard a sound like a spring uncoiling, and something being torn. Her brow furrowed in concentration, in an attempt to place the location of the sound. She turned in the general direction. She had practiced fighting without sight. It was not too difficult.

”What is... unboxing?” She said.

“Damn!” The voice drawled. “Nobody got that on camera? My fans will be pissed! Until I post the reaction vid online. Just picture it. ‘SO! I just got kidnapped today!!’ The views will be off the charts.” There was the sound of what she figured were hands, slapping together. Dusting off palms, perhaps? Or clapping... applauding herself? Who was this mutant man?

”Over here,” Lenna said, trying to get her attention quick. Before it drifted. ”Haircut. Need a haircut.”

“But your hair is so pretty! I hate to cut it bad. Wait a second—“ he said.

Footsteps, away from here. There was a sound like canvas ripping.

Light flooded into Hiyori’s field of vision. Not a metric ton of light. Just a little, from some lamps attached to the walls of the train car. The next thing the girl would see would be a Japanese boy, around 16 or 17, with short hair, cut into a spiky ‘do. He wore a big smile, a pair of blue jeans, a dark shirt, and a white hoodie with pictures of anime women’s faces plastered all over it. Very interesting faces. They looked delirious. He looked handsome. Tall and muscular, with a charming smile. Very personable. There were marks on his cheeks like curling lines.

If you need a good image of what his hoodie looked like, Google ahegao hoodie.

He took one look at her and said “Guess I let the cat out of the bag. Okay.” He clapped his hands in front of himself, and stalked away. To the other girl.

KA-SPROI-OI-OI-OING! There was a blur of movement from something. Something to do with his right hand. Then, that something coiled back into his palm. He had moved his arm like Zorro with his sword, something had recoiled, and the hair around the brunette’s arms, wrists, and legs, had fallen away.

Lenna stood, pushing up off the train cars floor. She brushed the hair out of her eyes. Her whole head felt... much lighter.

She looked to him, looked to the... cat... and asked ”Well. How do I look?”

There was a great big bruise on the right side of her face, and her hair... well, once it might have been shoulder length. Now, it was in a ragged bob that ended a couple inches above her shoulders. There were also two very long sets of bangs on either side of her face.. It could have been fashionable, on Mars. Maybe not on Earth.

Haru gave one big thumbs up. The cat, seemingly, had no thumbs.

Escape? Of course, they would. Hiyori was confident in that. A bag could only hold her for so long, even if it seemed impervious to her nails at the moment.

The cat stilled when a male voice popped up. Haru? A Japanese name? The cat flung out a few short questions in Japanese. She was seriously going to be pissed if she'd somehow made it all the way back home against her will.

A moment later the sack tore, light peeked in and if she had been any other Japanese teen a heartthrob right out of a Jpop dream was smiling down at her. Luckily, she wasn't the type to fixate on looks. Instead, she fixated on intent. Haru, as he had introduced himself, definitely gave off hero vibes. Didn't smell like death, either. Always a plus.

Also, she'd seen a few of his videos on Viewtube! He was quite entertaining and had a semi-rabid fan club.

Once he had moved away, she freed herself from the sack fully, turning to kick it away with disdain. Haru had moved off to give the girl she was talking to a haircut, which would have been weird had she not been physically restrained by her own hair.

That was... unusual.

Now that she could see, she summoned up a form that would actually be beneficial. Her shorthaired, cat-eared, dual tailed human form manifested in a billow of purple energy, and Hiyori vanished into its stomach. She glanced around, stretching her clawed fingers in preparation for the coming fight.

The last two kidnapped children were tucked away against another wall. She headed for them while Haru freed the other woman, who, once freed, asked how she looked. Hiyori peeked over her shoulder at her. Why... did she look familiar all of the sudden? Where had she seen that girl before

"You look fine... and ready for some retribution."

The one she had heard sniffling was a younger girl. Maybe six or seven at the very oldest. She had Neon green hair that seemed statically charged, was teary-eyed, and muffled with a length of cloth. Hiyori knelt and reached out to pull the fabric from her mouth.

"Nē, nē... it's okay. Everything will be alright." Poor kid. She looked really traumatized. The ropes that bound her little wrists together were done away with as well, and then Hiyori turned to the last kid. He didn't lool like a kid with powers at first glance, but the oven mitts tied onto his hands made her wonder. She sawed through his bonds as well, wondering if the two were related.

As soon as he was free he immediately stood, slapped one palm into the metal side of the train, and pulled out the biggest and longest sword she had ever seen outside an Anime. It barely fit from floor to ceiling in the compartment.

Turning back to the child, she summoned up the Geisha at her side. The woman was slightly altered to have more European features. "Climb on her back. She will carry you to safety as we escape."

The Geisha turned, kneeled in her silken robes, and got herself ready for the girl to climb on.

Once that was settled she stood again and refocused on the group as a whole.

"So... what is the plan? Shall we cut our way out and escape? Or shall we fight our would-be captors?"

There were all sorts of noise coming from outside, and the car they were in rocked violently for a moment.

"Also... What are your names? You may call me Senri." That was the name she had used while stalking the streets back home, anyway.

"M-Madeline..." The green-haired girl spoke up, and little lightning streaks raced through her hair. She buried herself further into the Geisha's back shyly.

"Cal." The older boy groused deeply. He was quite well built. It became super obvious as he hefted his sword up with ease and balanced it on one shoulder away from them all.

You certainly didnt hear poetry from a mass murderer everyday. It was almost infinitesimally small chance it was directed at yourself. Thank goodness she was wearing a mask to hide the blush. Some people! Not willing to let it distract her and sidestepping the inevitably spray of blood that followed the bisecting mutant hating mutants? Fights were for fighting not thinking. As emphasized by a helicopter crashing. Can anyone say collateral damage? 

The car lurched and bucked and she lowered her center of gravity smoothly rolling with the concussive blasts as if they were waves on the ocean. Not bothering to respond to the death poetry killer as she lept to the next car and ran along its top towards the remaining trio. If she survived this was going to be one heck of a story to tell her grandfather!

It wasnt the easies thing in the world to run atop a train car top while it shimmied and shook with the air rushing frigidly passed. As she approached she realized one was drawing sigils in the air, the other two muttering furiously. One failed.. or seemed to as sparks crackled in the air obscuring her view of the other two. Her fox ears twitched at an unnatural sound and she twisted to the side and slid towards the ground as spinning blades whizzed by, one cliping her arm in a welter of red that would have to go untreated as she threw herself forward with clenched teeth and a renewed fury. The bamboo case crunching into the side of a knew and out of the grasp of the man in the middle to go tumbling off the edge her follow-up swing catching air as the remaining two vanished to the unknown. 

She dropped between two cars to shelter herself somewhat from the wind, fox tail frazzled from the wind and irritation at being hurt and her new clothes already torn and bloodied. A decorative ribbon removed from her hair and bound tightly around the gash in her arm. Waiting for Aura to catch up before delving into the train cars themselves or going topside once again. 

She felt her feet punching into the car roof and came to the helicopter jumping onto it and briefly glancing at the pilot in the cockpit who looked human and terrified. Unable to be sure but knowing her solution would cuase them, pain. Dropping between the next car and the helicopter. She slashed the locked door and pulled open the door, telling the pilot to get out. She then brought her blade down on the linkage attaching the car;s, the thick metal took aura almost a minute to push thrue, solid and well made as it was.

The pilot leapt onto the trailing car and the Helicopter tumbled from the tracks and down a hill toward a street. Aura watched as the car seemed to steady falling behind the rest of the train slowly. Turning Aura opened the door into the car which was unlocked. In the car however was a strange three headed dog like creature who upon seeing Aura, opened its three mouths and purple flame leapt forward. Aura felt her aura prevent the flame from reaching her but the heat still burned her skin. The booths and tables around her however, started aflame. Aura charged and slashed at the strange dog, but her blade only ripped open a booth pouring some stuffing onto the floor. It then barrled into her stomach forcing her back, but she brought her blade down on the left most head, driving her blade thrue where the brain would be. The other two heads however seemed unbothered by the issue and agains breathed its purple flame. Aura dodges left the flames this time lighting up a bar area, several bottels breaking and their contents lighting and spreading to the carpet. Aura and the Cerberus charged each other, Aura this time slashing the head from the middle of the creature. It vanished but not before it's weight threw aura across the room toward the next door.

Aura opened the door to find Himari and smiled. "Ohhh it has been far to long, my pretty friend, a chance to stretch a bit like this is rare for me lately" she said shaking her head, Her blade cut the lock from the third car and she quickly entered not knowing how well the mysterious pink haired girl took a bullet. As it was two mystics stood on the far end of the car, in front of them however were a trio of lions whose mouths crackled with lightning. The Middle one opened its jaws and a line of electricity shot down the center of the car toward Hiamri and Aura. They had just a few more cars to check assuming the engine was not where the kids were. It was possible, but Aura felt it would be a foolish idea.

Very well. Her appearance was deemed acceptable. A thumbs up. Likely, she looked rough. Okay, though. Her head still made her feel a bit of the woozy. She could live with the bruise. But not the wooze.

She blinked. When next she opened her eyes, the cat had been replaced by a humanoid figure. Feminine. With ears of a cat, like in someone’s Japanese animated shows. Many mansion children enjoyed such things. She had yet to watch them, though. Too busy studying texts.

>> "You look fine... and ready for some retribution." The twin-tailed cat girl said.

Lenna clenched her jaw. ”Yes.”

Lenna got to work helping the others free the rest of the train car’s occupants. Though mainly, that meant tailing the cat.

They got a green haired girl, and a boy who summoned a rather large sword. This entire train car would have screamed Japanese animation to her, again, if she had been interested in that sort of stuff. Fortunately, her mind sought order and usefulness over wistfulness. The boy had a sword. She said ”Hope you can utilize that. But as Yoda stated, Size matters, not.”

He eyed her. She smiled weakly. The effort caused the side of her face to throb. The smile evaporated.

She shook her head, then glanced at the cat girl as yet another thing appeared amongst their ranks. Big swords and big things. Sh felt useful as tits on a basketball.

The girl was on the kimono woman. The cat girl addressed them all. Like she was running the show. Lenna liked her. She seemed capable. Maybe more capable than Lenna had been so far? Perhaps. Easily fixed. No need to dwell on how easily she had been nabbed.


The car rocked, almost in reply to the girl. Lenna could hear vague noises from beyond.

>> "Also... What are your names? You may call me Senri." Sentai added.

“M-Madeline,” said green hair girl.

“Cal,” said the swordsman.

“Haru!” Haru barked. Came out sounding like “haw roo!” She could almost hear the roo roo roo echo.

”I am Lenna.” She stated.

Lenna walked over to the corner and grabbed a broom that had been leaning against the wall. Then, she smashed its head off on the floor to give herself a jagged spear.

She would not allow herself to be nabbed again. She would not feel sorry for herself, or focus on the pain and disorientation.

Calmly, she strutted forward and tried the door at the end of the car. Just as it began to turn, by itself. Her hand instantly released the handle as she stepped back. A moment later, a man opened the door.

He had been checking on them, she realized. At the sight of her, his hand started moving. She was unsure what for. Before he could retrieve it or do anything, however, Lenna smashed the butt of the broom handle into his stomach. That caused him to begin to double over. She followed it by sweeping his feet from beneath him, and sent him sprawling upon the floor.

She followed his sudden fall up by kicking him repeatedly in the face, and when he brought them up to protect his face, the hands. A hand caught the end of her broken broom as she drew it back for an overhand coup de grace. Haru.

“He’s unconscious, yo.” He gestured. She looked. He was.

“Yo.” She agreed. “Good. We drag him inside and loot him for keys. Help me.”

Haru helped her pull him into the car. She found a ring of keys after a few seconds of searching.

His sudden appearance had startled her. But still, she wanted to make herself useful. Her quick reactions had prevented him from raising an alarm. They had probably made her seem brutish and quick to harm to the rest of the children, but— that had been a sacrifice she had been willing to make.

She rose, and jingled the keys at the group.

Cal nodded. Haru gave a thumbs up. The little girl, Madeline, smiled tersely from her perch upon the geishas back.

That answered the what do we do next question. They would go ahead.

Since she had procured keys, Lenna went first. Into the next car.

—

The next car was well lit, and well stocked. There were several red and white coolers against one wall, for snacks and beverages. Refreshments for what appeared to be a guard house. Magi sense on the ground were amongst the other signs of living. Wise, to station a guard house directly outside the area guards should have been guarding. Yet, only one had come to check in them. The cabin was empty.

“Hrm,” Cal grunted. He stepped closer to the center of the room. “Card tables set up. Plenty of chairs.”

“They had a big poker game goin’ on.” Haru brushed past Cal’s shoulder to stand next to the largest table. The gruff boy rested his swords rip against the floor so he could cross his arms. Haru paid him no mind, scanning the tables contents. “Enough cards for ten men.” There was a hand of cards on the table in front of him. Haru turned them over. “Full House.”

“Where’d they all go?” Madeline squeaked.

There was a sound in the distance like something large falling from the sky. The whole train shuddered. They all exchanged significant looks.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lenna announced, Colombian accent thick. ”The next car will be rrrroiling with goons.” And as it turned out, it was.

—

The door to the next car was not locked. All the work for keys, and the door had been left unlocked in careless haste. The distraction causing the sounds had divided attentions so much.

So much, in fact, that when Lenna first entered , she saw them before they saw her. Six men stood with their backs to the group, focused in the opposite direction. Towards the other end of the train. They were heavily armed, several feet away from the door at the end of the car. Waiting.

This was bad. Very bad. Lenna knew guns. If they saw them all and turned, the train car would be a bloody shooting gallery. Worse, still, they were in a metal tube. Bullets that missed them would ricochet off every plane at every angle. The chaos alone would doom them. Only divine Providence had saved them for the moment. They were distracted.

She was good. But was she this good? If she worked fast, she could shift guns up, force as off center. But she could not do so fast enough, not even if she did so in rapid succession. Even worse, the chaos. Again, the chaos of ricochet. They would be as the Swiss cheese.

Could Cal rush their buns fast enough? The phrase was bum rush, she corrected herself. Could Haru do his thingy with the... springy? What could Senri the cat girl do with her summons? Or the small child, Madeline? No. The chaos. Too much was to be left to chance. If they turned and spotted them all, it would be, how do you say? The game would be over. Fish in a barrel that was also bouncing bullets off its sides to shoot them more.

The only way they would survive was if they all focused on a single target for long enough. Long enough for the group to jump them. Because there was no way they could cover that entire distance in stealth, in seconds. No way.

The entire thought process took her moments. From the realization of how utterly ruined they were, down to the split second mental images of each of her people being cut down in turn by a swathe of bullets. And her decision.

Lenna turned and looked at each of them in turn, finally settling her eyes on Senri’s. If she had known *Senri were actually a cat hiding in the shadows of the image of a cat girl, and that the sight lines were all wrong, she would have felt the fool. Lenna was not making direct eye contact at all! But, for the sake of things, this fact mattered not.

Lenna looked Senri in the eye*. The look said “I am planning to be amazingly stupid. I have known you five minutes. I trust you. And you are a cat. You are in charge, now.” Ot maybe it merely looked like she were gassy. She held up a finger for silence. Then, Lenna turned.

Using all the stealth of a lifetimes training, she crept towards the men. If she could close the distance, draw near enough to battle them at close quarters, their edge would dull. They would crunch. They would— crunch?

Crunch?!

CRUNCh?!?!?

She spun. Had she not pointed at the floor after motioning for silence??? Told them all to stay still so she could— no. In her haste, she had not. And f%*%%ing Haru. F%*%{^ing HARU. Had stepped on a bag of chips in his attempt to follow after her in order to give his support.

HATE, UNFOLLOW, UNSUBSCRIBE!!!! If Lenna were internet Savvy, she would have shouted such merciless words. But she was not. What she was, was dead. Oh, ohh so dead.

“What the hellll?”

She spun back to face the group of goons. Lenna had made it halfway across the car. They were all turning towards her, now.

She really did not wish to die. Her power was finesse. She could focus on a single target, point by point, and shift the probability. Nudge them. Maybe more. But could she— she could not just rush in and beat them when she was so far away. Could not just be a target and have the rest of them rush after she was dead. She had wanted to be heroic. Like Skye. Like cold Steel. Like an X man. But she had also recently had head trauma so WHO THE HELL was letting her make major life decisions right now?!

She wanted to be back home. Her home. With her aunt. She had finally found it. Instead, she was here.

She was mad. Her hearing, it had dulled with the stress. Faded to background. To white noise. Like waves, crashing against the rocks by the docks in Colombia.

A memory of her in her youth. Her youth that was both simultaneously a handful of years ago, and also a decade. On a barrel, by the docks, watching by the day. Watching the waves crash. The sun set. The waves.

The waves.

The waves.

To her, everything was orange. She had figured out this was likely due to her power trying to move the entire world because it could not settle on one single thing. It tried to move it all. Brute force reality to her will. If she used finesse, she could alter things in her favor. But she could not just crush things in one massive wave of will... or could she?

She wanted to defend them. She wanted off this stupid train. She wanted to live. And she wanted— she wanted these men out of her way.

Lenna’s world was orange. But, she tried to narrow it in that second, squint her eyes and tighten her focus. Make it so only some of it was orange. Maybe about a 8-10 foot wide area. About yay talk, and yay thick.

She could hear the waves crashing. So, she imagined them. Imagined her power as a wave of orange, instead of a field. Tightened her focus, and— as the men raised machine guns and trained them on her and her fellow kids, lenna PUSHED!!!

She sent the telekinetic force out. Like a crashing wave of orange was only she could see. With the force of a 300 lb linebackers tackle. It hit everything. Bowled them all over. Pressed them into walls. Boom! Knocked over chairs, and sent them smashing into the end of the train car. Any other debris. Cans of soda, other bags of chips, lamps, bing, bam, boom. All that force, all that power, swept out like a wave and hit everything. Everything in its path but one.

Five out of six goons is not bad, right?

The last one had ducked to scrawl something on the floor. Hastily summoned a massive boulder to hide behind. Gigantic. And had crouched in the lee of the stone as the force of the wave passed all around. He had avoided being crunched into the other end of the train with concussive force. Unlike his fellow goons. Sorry, boys. Because he had been smart.

The wave receded in her vision, and to her that seemed to make the orange of her world spread back out. So instead of a small area, the area of the wave, it was everything. Again. And also. She felt like something had broken with the effort. She felt—

Lenna wobbled. Then she staggered. And then, she was falling backwards off her feet. Oops.

One summoner left. Capable of summoning anything, from Cerberus itself to a giant tentacle beast from your favorite Japanese animations. Hiding behind that rock, scrabbling with chalk. Making the runes.

As her vision faded to darkness and she fell, Lenna thought to herself: “Five out of six better be enough.”

It was on Senri and her Senri squad, now. Lenna had shot her shot and got out.

What a terrible phrase to end on. She should have been ashamed. And she would have been... if she were still conscious.

Side note, that massive wave definitely rocked the train some and made noise. Aura and himari could probably have heard that.

Good. They were all introduced and all relatively calm. She had no reason to believe this mission suddenly thrust upon them would go south. Haru seemed capable if a little bit of a goof. Madaline was the youngest from what she could tell and thus she did not expect the young girl to fight. Cal and Lenna held themselves in a way that made her wonder if they had previous experience with dire situations such as this and that pleased her. She felt like she was part of a capable team for the first time since she had landed in the city.

Her hunch was proven correct about Lenna swiftly after it had formed, as a target appeared and she swiftly dealt with him. Excitement bubbled in her stomach as Hiyori watched, tense and prepared for a fight of her own.

They all shuffled over into the next car as soon as the keys were found, and it was empty. Empty was not necessarily a good thing though, and they all knew it. Hiyori kept the Geisha and Madaline behind her at the rear and let Cal and Haru go ahead with Lenna.

Everyone was quiet as they moved on to the next, anticipating the worst. When they encountered the group in the next car Lenna was leading their small group still, and when the girl turned and made eye contact with her... she got the message. She had something planned, and Hiyori was more than willing to let her carry out her plan. She prepped herself to be backup if needed and positioned herself in front of Madaline and the Geisha. Cal seemed prepped as well. Large sword held at ready and muscles clearly tense. Haru was... moving? He was following after-

CRUNCH

Haru flinched, Lenna turned to glare at him furiously, and Hiyori had a decision to make. She swiftly abandoned her human form in favor of getting ready to drop the Shogun directly in front of Lenna. The gun holding men were turning- she didn't have time-

Just as the purple haze started to form, Lenna seemed to send a powerful blast of... something at all of them. It knocked almost every enemy back, aside from one seemingly summoned a boulder out of nowhere and hid behind it.

Lenna swayed on her feet and Haru was the closest. He dove to catch her before she could hit the group.

Hiyori sprang into action before Cal had a chance too, finalizing the form of the Shogun mid-air just in front of where Lenna had been standing. The large creature filled the space with its huge body and had to hunch in order to fully fit.

She pulled the strings from behind, scrambling back in her natural form to hop up alongside Madaline on the Geisha's shoulder.

The Shogun carefully swung his giant blade back, avoiding hitting any of them with the utmost care from her perch, before putting every ounce of strength into swinging it up. The aged bladed weapon carved through the metal of the roof with a horrible squeal, before descending on the boulder and man with as much force as possible.

The boulder cracked down the middle, split in two, and the Naginata left a gaping hole in the metal flooring. The man was gone, vanished into the hole, or vanished into thin air. She wasn't sure.

The whole bunch of cars they were in rocked and seemingly started to slow. Hiyori looked at the door on the other side of the Shogun, and the newly cut split in the ceiling. She felt like their chances were better up on the roof than in another cramped car, especially if they were slowing down for some reason.

"Haru! Bring Lenna here!" The Geisha knelt and offered one arm out to grab the passed-out woman, while her other arm kept a secure grip on Madaline.

The Shogun set his blade down and gripped onto the edges of the torn sheet metal. With a monstrous roar, he pulled the split open more, making it a bigger hole for them to escape through. Then he knelt in a way that made his body an improvised ramp.

"Everyone out!"

Cal scrambled up first and poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear, before fully scampering up onto the roof. Haru followed right after, with the Geisha dogging his heels. Hiyori scampered up the back of her creation and lept for the edge of the roof. The Shogun dispelled and from the same swirls of purple her cat-eared body was back. She pulled herself up onto the roof with ease and settled into a crouch to take in their surroundings.

"... Is that blood?" Cal asked, pointing at a splash of crimson that decorated one side of the roof just down from them.

Hiyori took in a deep breath, tasted it on her tongue, and nodded. "Yep... someone else is-"

She paused as another scent hit her.

Fox.

"...onēchan?"

"Senri?" Madaline asked, noticing her confused expression. Hiyori snapped out of it. If Himari was there, then that was just an extra bonus on their side. Her sister was fully capable in more ways than Hiyori herself.

"I'm okay. Let's go. We need to get out of here." As much as she wanted to find more people to fight, there were others who didn't want to be involved.

A hatch from one car down flew open and an unfamiliar head popped out. The woman looked around until she spotted them, then shouted something and started clambering up onto the roof herself. One by one five people followed up after her.

"...chikushō" Haru giggled at her and she glared at him.

Haru, Cal, and herself all stepped up to form a wall between the five goons and Madaline. Hiyori crouched slightly and flexed her clawed fingers.

The female that had first spotted them started flashing her hands around and forming seals of light in the air, a moment later a fireball the size of a basketball rocketed toward them. Cal jumped forward and blocked it with his giant sword, and it was hot enough that it turned the metal red where it had impacted. It saved them all from having to deal with it, and Cal prepped himself again.

Hiyori crouched lower and darted forward, speeding out from behind Cal with a feral look in her eye. She streaked toward the woman as she was prepping for some other attack, and leaped with the grace of an angry cat on her. Sharp nails sank into flesh wherever she found purchase, and the woman fell backward with her on top.

Haru rushed forward at the same time as Cal, and each of them split to handle different people. Cal swung his giant sword right over Hiyori's head and batted someone attempting to help the woman right off the side of the train. He turned again to block a blast of ice with his sword, shielding most of his body with the metal.

Haru squared up against a large man with a gun and a scruffy beard. Before the guy could get a bead on him the Japanese boy had lifted both palms and in a series of motions almost too quick for the eyes to follow, he'd made an attack of his own. KA-SPROI-OI-OI-OING!

All of the man's clothes, aside from white and red heart boxers, fell off of him. His gun fell to pieces in his hand. He rightfully panicked and turned to run.

Another woman started to rush up to take his place, but Hiyori appeared from off to the side and got her neatly in the jaw with a perfectly executed flying kick. She landed on the woman and knocked her out with a few punches.

The three of them stood, watching as the nearly naked one scrambled back inside the train through the hatch they had come out of, with unconscious enemies underfoot.

"Yeah! Go us!" Haru fished out his phone again and start to record. "Haru here! Kidnappers thwarted!" He flexed and beamed charmingly. Cal and Hiyori blinked as the camera panned their way briefly. "Heroes won!"