A soft whumpf was the only forewarning before a flash of bright blue light filled the office of the chairman of the university's Egyptology department.

A woman wearining linens and jewels in the style of Egypt, circa 3500 BCE, stood there with azure malice in her eyes and a flaxen rope with a glowing jewel on the end of it.

"Ebb, Flo, secure the room," she said in passable English, despite her thick accent.

"Sure thing boss," Ebb said as he moved his wetsuit-clad self over to a door.

"Aye, aye!" Flo echoed with a sarcastic salute as she started to pace the perimeter of the room to ensure there were no other openings. She also wore a wetsuit, but unlike her twin brother, it was more for fashion than function.

Meanwhile, the chairman, was just starting to process what was going on. "What the he--"

"Dr. Goldstein," the woman said. "Where is the Jewel of Ash? I demand it's return now, or I'll wring it from your mind or corpse. Your choice."

The shocked archaeologist just sputtered and the woman rolled her eyes.

"Enough," she said as she began chanting and spinning her rope in a small circle.

---

It was maybe fifteen minutes later when Dr. Goldstein finally called the police. The mind control had worn off, but not before the woman had forced him to reveal to her the location of the Jewel of Ash, the god of oases. It was temporarily at his private residence, where he'd been working on studying it over the weekend.

By that point, the woman and the Tidal Twins were well on their way to the house, on the back of a a gargantuan heron summoned from the aether.

By the time Goldstein was able to convince law enforcement of the threat and for the police to call upon SUPER to send agents to the home, they'd arrived.

---

Neighbors began screaming and fleeing as a hole opened up in the sky over the house and the nearby river began draining down into the neighbor. With a wild cry, Ebb and Flow leaped off the heron's back and began directing the water around Goldstein's house, forming a moat and a swamp as the inundation only continued.

Only then did the woman descend on the heron as she started her investigation.

NYPD had routed the call to SUPER and all other preternatural aligned agencies they had any contact with given the details involved in the call. Ranger, recognizing the description of the woman and the jackals tapped in to head to the professor’s house to confront the woman.

Ten minutes later a Ford F650 (The Fordasaurus) kitted out as some kind of urban assault vehicle pulled up near the mote that had formed around professor’s house. It was a nice house, emphasis on nice. Ranger jumped out of the truck and pulled the straps on his vest, tightening how it sat on his chest. He then checked the pistol in his holster and the tomahawk on his vest. They were secure. Ranger reached back into the truck and pulled out an AR style shotgun. His vest was loaded with more magazines for it. He wasn’t making the mistake of being unprepared again.

Granted he wasn’t sure how he was going to prepare for what he saw. Water descending everywhere, flowing around the house. That was new. Scarab lady had brought friends. Ranger wasn’t sure if water was better than sand or not.

Ranger started breathing fast, trying to hyperoxygenate his blood as he stepped into the water, moving toward the house. His lungs changed, increasing their capacity. Ranger was not a SEAL but had trained with them for a time. Water wasn’t his native environment, but he wasn’t unfamiliar to fighting in it.

A white pickup truck came to a stop by the urban tank. The truck was in fairly good condition - you could tell it had seen a lot of action over the years, but it was still lovingly cared for and maintained. The same could be said for the six foot three man who got out of the truck. He was dressed simply in slightly faded jeans, black work boots, and a blue and white flannel shirt. A pair of leather gloves hanging out of his back pocket completed the look.

It was the rigidness with which he stood and surveyed the scenario that set him apart. There was no flicker of surprise, shock, or awe on his face as he witness the heavens ripped open to form waterfalls and a new swamp. It was the face of a veteran emergency services worker, and a mystic to boot.

"Hunter," Rex said in acknowledgement and with a small nod as he stepped up to the now-familiar government agent. Rex wasn't even surprised to see him there, not truly. Magic tended to work in nearly as many mysterious ways as God. About fifteen minutes beforehand, one of the oracles at the Veil, one who specialized in detecting dangers and often served as a dispatcher when sending people to deal with missions in other countries to help or extract nascent mystics, called him to say the police had reports of an "Egyptian magic lady" looking for something and where she was going. Rex had just so happened to be the closest Veil member to the location who also had any experience or skill in dealing with magical foes.

"It seems as though we're destined to keep meeting like this," he said wryly. If it was indeed the sorceress he and Hunter had stopped mere days before, than this was definitely an act of God bringing them together once again. "I'll follow your lead." After all, this was Hunter's job. Besides, the man knew enough of Rex's abilities and probably had a better sense of how to direct them in a violent confrontation.

Before Ranger set out in earnest, making his way through the water, a white pickup pulled up next to the Fordasaurus. It stopped and Ranger watched Rex step out. Ranger looked at the house and the falling water then moved back toward Rex.

”Lieutenant Vidales, howdy.” Ranger replied. It was odd seeming the man there. Sure, the 911 call made it sound like it was related to the event in the museum a few days prior, but why would Rex show up at another event with a similar scarab lady involved. Ranger wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, however. Rex showed he could handle his own against the magic the woman threw.

It seemed the coincidence of their meeting again was not missed by Rex either. ”One more time an’ I think y’ owe me a beer.” Ranger joked before his tone turned serious, ”Y’ a strong swimmer, Rex? I don’ think we can simply walk int’ that house.” Then again, the hobbits pretty much walked into Mordor. Ranger started toward the house and gestured for Rex to advance with him.

They needed to move through a new swamp then through a flow of water around the house. Normally Ranger liked to operate where the enemy didn’t know he was there until it was too late or have such speed and violence of action they can never recover. The battlefield with the falling river likely precluded both options.

”We need t’ figure out what’s causin’ the neighborhood t’ flood an’ stop it. Not worth it’ t’ stop a B an’ E but lose all these homes.”

Rex didn't laugh at the joke, although it was amusing. "But of course," he said in response. Hopefully there wouldn't be a next time. This sorceress was dangerous and seemed to have no regard for anything, not even her sandy comrade who was being held in a mutant-proof cell somewhere. She was every bit as bad as a mutant.

He scanned the situation again and blew out some air. "I'm not scared of water, but this is going to severely limit my usefulness," he admitted. "Give me a sec," he said as he trotted back to his truck. He pulled out a heavy duty belt complete with a fireman's ax in a holster and a variety of other tools of the trade. He put it on and made his way back to Hunter. "Personally, I wasn't planning on walking, I was planning on charging in."

Hunter was right though. The water was definitely the problem. It was already spread out over the adjacent properties. There was undoubtedly already flooding happening in their basements. The water just spread so quickly, as if guided. It even moved uphill.

Rex had a hunch though. He furrowed his brow and squinted up at the portal that was dropping dozens of gallons of water every second. He tried to focus on it. Was that...? Yeah. It felt like magic.

He said as much to Hunter. "From what I understand, if a person can teleport or make things appear out of thin air, opening a portal to or from somewhere isn't much more difficult," he reported. "I can shut it down, but I'd need to get close to it." He glanced at Hunter, remembering the man's ability to bulk upon a dime. "Think you can give me a boost?"

Then Rex began quoting a scripture and as happened many times before, a sword of light and ready to slice through magic appeared in Rex's hand.

Ranger could understand how a bunch of water everywhere would severely limit the usefulness of a guy who called down swirling infernos and wielded a firesword. So Ranger waited while Rex returned to his truck and pulled out a work belt with an ax and various other tools. Ranger almost felt like his tomahawk was insufficient with an actual ax showing up, but Ranger knew it wasn’t the size of the ax, it was how you swing the thing.

When Rex returned he seemed to be thinking of something, when he spoke he commented on teleportation. Ranger listened, what he said made sense but Ranger had no way of knowing one way or another. Ranger was a hammer. His powers weren’t outside the box that he ever had to consider spatial relations with them. What Ranger did understand completely was Rex could turn it off but he needed a boost.

”Yeah, I should be able t’ do that. Y’r on y’r own f’r the landin’ though.” Ranger said as he swung the shotgun around to be slung off his back. He pulled on a strap and it cinched down so it wouldn’t move too much.

Taking a moment to gauge the distance before he spread his legs into a wider stance with one foot in front of the other. Ranger brought his hands together and squatted down so his hands were just above the water. ”Let’s light this candle.” Ranger said using a common expression used for rocket launches. He took a breath and tensed his muscles for the weight. Immediately he felt his power respond, ready to empower his muscles as the weight resisted them.

They were good to go.

Rex entered the water and splashed forward until he could step into Hunter's hands. He laid his offhand on Hunter's shoulder a moment for balance and nodded when he was ready.

He wasn't ready. There was no way he could've been. It was too late to chance his mind though. Because Rex was suddenly flung nearly four stories in the air in a slight arc. In seconds he was higher than even the portal and if he'd had a moment of calm to realize what was going on he would've been panicking, but he didn't have time for that. He had a single shot at this.

By the grace of God, Hunter had aimed true. As Rex started descending, he was right on target over the portal. From this end, it was just a blurry mass of blue light, but he knew the side facing the ground was still dumping water out. Rex took a brief moment to cross himself and then he held the sword of the spirit in front of him, pitching forward like a falling spear, and shot through the portal and shattering it to pieces.

The shock of it hit Rex and he opened his hand, allowing the sword to vanish. It wasn't going to help him anymore and could potentially hurt the next phase of his plan: surviving the fall.

Fortunately, the moment Rex broke the portal, he was engulfed in the last several dozen gallons of water that had been pouring through the portal. He was still falling at lethal speeds until somewhere around a dozen feet or so above the ground, things started shifting. He suddenly felt lighter and the water started changing course, as if it were being directed.

Which it was. The column of water was defying physics as it twisted and angled and splashed over various parts of the house and yard and in doing so, it absorbed much of the momentum of the fall. Rex finally struck the moat hard enough to leave bruises all over him, but at least he was alive. For now.

A current of water immediately snatched him away and tried pulling him further into the moat that was started to flow swiftly in a constant circle.

Once Rex gabe the go ahead, Ranger leaned a little deeper into his squat and then erupted with power. Starting with his legs, Ranger’s muscles exploded in size. Legs, glutes, arms and shoulders. Each muscle group expanded as it was recruited for generating force for the throw.

The throw had been calculated, but Ranger had to rely on his power to give him the correct amount of force to have the arc hit apogee where it needed to. Ranger watched for a moment after throwing Rex to make sure his aim was true, his muscles shrinking back to their normal size. Once he was satisfied he started toward the house, keeping an eye on Rex.

Rex sailed right up over the portal and came through it, ending it with his sword but getting caught in the last breath of water that came from it. Ranger watched as Rex traveled with the water down and down until it hit a bend where the water began to move, no longer following the normal rules of gravity.

Finally, Rex was dumped into the moat. As far as Ranger could tell, Rex was okay. Until the current of the moat caught Rex. The current was swift, it was clear the moat was not intended to be some passive barrier keeping the barbarians out by making them have to swim in their armor. No, it was an active protection. The water moved with a current that would make any swimmer think twice.

Knowing he would need to cross anyway, Ranger dove into the water ahead of Rex. Ranger was a strong swimmer. He had a decent wingspan and could put a lot of power in his arms, but the water was incredibly fast. Ranger surfaced and tried to muscle through the water, swimming against the current to let Rex be brought to him.

Ranger could feel the thin veil in his power. It was trying to switch. While strength could help, it was trying to give him speed. Let him move fast enough to counter the current and defeat it. Ranger felt an incredibly uncomfortable pain as he swam. Then suddenly it seemed to break. Ranger’s body shifted and his body moved faster.

Moving like a speedboat, Ranger shot across the water and snatched Rex on the way to the inside shore of the moat. It was only upon reaching the shore and throwing an arm up onto the ground did Ranger realize something was different.

Smaller arm, much smaller hands. Ranger threw another arm onto the land and heaved to push themselves out of the water. They felt smaller, and their clothes didn’t fit right, especially the shoes. Was that… hair? Ranger spun and sat on the land and brushed brown hair out of their face. Ranger’s arm brushed against themselves in a way that was all too familiar.

”Not again…” Ranger said, her voice familiar, not her normal voice but one she was used to hearing.

The water was cold and that didn't make things any easier for Rex. The entire time he'd been falling, he'd been underwater, and now he was being dragged around deeper and deeper. Panic started setting in as his instinctively tried fighting for the surface. His boots weren't helping and the shock of it all was slowing him.

Still, Rex wasn't a quitter and he wasn't going to go down that easily. After a moment or two to shrug off the shock and focus his mind, Rex began kicking hard and fighting toward the surface. He broke through with major effort and started sputtering as he tried to collect his bearing, but the current was too swift. He slipped underwater again and almost lost his air, but suddenly something latched onto him and pulled him out of the water.

Rex flopped like a fish for a few seconds as he coughed and sputtered. He rolled over onto the mud of the swampy ground nearest the house and retched what water he'd swallowed.

"Thanks," he sputtered as he started to push himself into a kneeling position. "...Hunter?"

It wasn't Hunter. Or maybe it was. It was a woman wearing Hunter's clothes, now oversized. Looking across the moat, he didn't see anyone else. Rex frowned and then quickly quoted a verse. "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” A small candleflame appeared over his upturned hand. "That you, Hunter?" If it wasn't, Rex was already selecting another verse that would bring forth fire and pain.

Moments after Ranger had realized the situation she had found herself in it seemed Rex had noticed. The man said Ranger’s last name questioningly before he spoke a verse and a small flame appeared. Rex then asked if Ranger was Ranger.

Ranger looked at Rex, then at her hands, then back to Rex. ”Yeah… It’s me.” Ranger slid backward so her feet were out of the water. ”But why… Why now, why only me?... “ Ranger looked around searching for some sign of what caused the change to themselves before looking back at Rex, ”This idn’t the first time somethin’ like this has happened t’ me.” Ranger said before standing up and pulling her pants up higher and tightening the belt. There was still a job to do, full body changes or not. Ranger then tied her boots much much tighter.

The flame stayed perfectly still the whole time Ranger spoke.

"I can deal with it later. There's still a job t' do."

The flame burned bright and straight, no deviance nor dalliance. Hunter was sincere. That in itself raise some interesting questions, but Rex didn't bother asking them. Mutants. They rarely made sense.

"Alright then," Rex said, trusting Hunter as his word. He got to his feet and immediately prayed over him hands, simply asking for them to be warmer. Moments later, they started radiating with gentle warmth, fighting off the effects of the cold water. Then Rex pulled one of the gloves out from his pocket. It was waterlogged and drenched, but he was pretty sure it would still work. He slid it onto his right hand and made a fist. He focused momentarily on it and a tiny bit of light illuminated some words that had been burned into the leather: Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. He'd worked overtime in the last couple of days after the museum to put the finishing touching on the glove, but he hadn't had time to work the spell into working with left handed gloves. So the glove in his back pocket was another right handed glove.

He was ready for more jackalmen and sandstone warriors.

He wasn't ready for what happened next.

"Hey Ebb! What the $%^& happened to the water?" he heard an angry feminine voice yell from inside the house.

"How the #$%# should I know?" yelled a male voice. "You're the $%^$%^$$ watershaper!"

A third voice said something but it wasn't in a loud tone.

Moments later, the water in the moat suddenly surged upward and all the water beyond it began rushing back as the moat began growing taller and taller and began arcing inward toward the house, until it formed a watery dome, easily a dozen feet thick, filled with mud and debris. The house and everything else underneath the dome was cast into dimness.

"I think they know we're here," Rex said.

Thankfully Rex let the issue die. Ranger had been in the situation enough to be able to just work through it, but it still had that awkwardness to it when someone was immediately there right after it happened.

As Ranger finished readjusting virtually everything to account for her new shape and size, Rex had produced a glove. One glove. The man slid it on and there was a glow, maybe writing? Ranger shook his head and said,, ”Nice glove, Michael Jackson.” She also noticed Rex looked cold. Ranger did not feel cold even though she was soaked through with cold water. Her power must have triggered protection against it.

Ranger spun the shotgun around and cinched it up. She could work a strap quickly on the sling to let it move freely when needed. As Ranger was pulling the strap to cinch it up, she heard voices. Angry, yelling voice followed by one that was quieter.

Hearing the voices, Ranger expected trouble so she immediately loosed the strap holding the muzzle down and brought the shotgun up expecting scarabs, jackals, or some other mystical assault. Instead, the moat erupted, sending water upward, arching over the house to create a watery dome. This cast the area around them into a warping dimness as the water not only reduced the light but kept where it landed in constant movement.

For some reason Ranger’s eyes did not adjust as she expected they would. Instead her hearing became more sensitive. The soft sound of skittering inside the house came to her. Feet moving and the sound of effort.

”Well, then let’s not keep ‘em waitin’.” Ranger said as she approached the house. WIth her left hand, she worked the knob. Locked. Ranger looked back to Rex and with a smile said, ”Time f’r some shock an’ awe.”

Ranger stepped back, aimed her shotgun at the doorknob and blew it off. She then released the weapon, letting it swing down against her front as she pulled a flash grenade from her vest, popped the pin, kicked the door in, and tossed the grenade. She waited a one count and stormed in with the shotgun raised.

The flash grenade had been a surprise to which Ebb had responded by warping gravity. As Ranger advanced she found herself pulled sideways. SHe kept walking and soon found herself walking along a wall.

Rex slapped his leg lightly and the iota of power built up in the glove dispersed harmlessly against his leg. He barely even noticed it. The glove sill seemed to work despite the water.

"Thank you," Rex grunted, only vaguely realizing Hunter was joking.

Hunter was gearing up so Rex did as well. In the dimness, he realized they wouldn't be able to see nearly as well. Normally he'd summon a floating fireball or two, but he didn't think they be effective in the water.

Hunter attacked the door and charged in. Rex called forth his lightsword again and followed suit, into well-lit and sizeable house. It was a three story house and easily looked like it had half a dozen rooms on each floor. The owner had done well for himself.

Rex tripped and nearly lost his grip on his swordspell as he was suddenly running over a fireplace. Then he leaped a ducked an ottoman that was hurled from the floor to the wall where Rex was, as it to followed the new course of gravity.

A figure in a wetsuit suddenly floated into view. "Well what do we have here!" he called out mockingly. Ebb floated in the center of the room, unconcerned by the gravitas of the situation. "Hey Flo! We've got some uninvited guests!"

"Get rid of them already, you idiot!" Flo shouted back from apparently upstairs. "We're still searching!"

"Fine, I guess I'll be the big tough man and save you women from the hard stuff," Ebb sneered as he cracked his knuckles. Then he said to Hunter and Rex: "Okay, time for you two to die!"

Furniture starting zooming around the room as gravity twisted and warped, turning bookshelves into shields, couches into battering rams, and paperweights into lethal projectiles.

It was convenient that Ranger did not experience motion sickness. At no point did Ranger stop moving, and at no point did the gravity in the room stay fixed. It changed direction and intensity constantly and without pattern. Ranger just kept moving and often found herself jumping to avoid an object only to land on a different surface with it being the new down.

In view, a man in a wetsuit was yelling at another inside the building. Flo was upstairs, likely the one controlling the water. It could have been the one in the wetsuit, but the water outside moved less like gravity was changing and more like the water was being directly controlled.

The man exclaimed that it was time for Rex and Ranger to die. Ranger slid on her knees across the ceiling, under a flying credenza and took aim at the gravityman.

”Uno reverse.” Ranger said and the shotgun barked. Several times.

Ebb’s eyes had gone wide at the sight of the shotgun pointed at him. Immediately he altered gravity and compounded it. All around the room gravity started returning to normal, all except for a thirty degree arc in front of Ebb, centered on Ranger. The buckshot was pulled back toward Ranger under several Gs and to the side with equal force.

"Uno reverse, reverse. Draw four."

Ranger found it hard to stand, and began squeezing her thighs as hard as she could as the blood from her head was driven down into her legs. A moment later the gravity lessened and Ranger climbed back to her feet. The snap change to focused gravity returning to the funhouse gravity and Ranger immediately threw herself to the side and rolled out of it as a chair slammed into the space she had just occupied.

Tis was unlike anything Rex had ever dealt with. He was used to burning buildings, rushing into infernos and maneuvering across floors that were liable to break down, aware that at any moment the building might fall on top of you. He understood that. You tested floors, avoided intense heat, broke down doors and walls as needed, and sometimes had to make leaps of faith.

He'd never been in a rock tumblr house before.

He caught the lamp that swung his way and dropped it. He lunged out of the way of couch and banged his knee against a wall sconce. He let go of the sword and bright magical light vanished, leaving the large living room/foyer/lobby illuminated only by the ceiling lights, which Rex was suddenly leaping over as gravity twisted again.

By the time he got his bearing, he heard a shotgun fire. He saw Hunter...go down hard. Then gravity stopped and Rex was falling from the ceiling. He missed Ebb by several feet and just barely missed getting skewered on an upturned chair.

"Blood of God," he swore. Firelight gleamed in his eyes as Rex focused on Ebb and began speaking.

Fire bloomed and burst from the floor underneath Ebb as a burning bush of solid fire rapidly sprouted toward the man. Right now, Rex didn't care if the branches burned the man - he could heal the man later. He just needed gravity to get back to normal.