At first, few people noticed the blue/white portal that opened in the middle of Times Square. It wasn't quite as crowded as normal, due to the chaos of the proceeding morning. Many people elected to stay home or at whatever refuge they'd found the day before.

Then again, many others treated it like just another day in New York.

At any rate, a blip of light and the appearance of three unsually-clad individuals wasn't much of a change for the toughened souls who traversed the bright and still-busy Square. It was warm enough that their mixture of linens, leather, and metal garb didn't stand out too much and the people nearest to the trio just assumed it was was a new street art performance.

Then one said something pithy in a dialect nobody could understand and with a sudden rush of wind, leaped into the air, where wind currents began swirling and forming around him in a sudden whirlwind, his lone linen robes whirling around in a spectacular display.

A second member of the trie, a woman in a long white shift and an obsidian mask of a blank-faced person suddenly rushed forward at one of the crowd of onlookers who had started forming around the trio in anticipation of the art. The woman snatch at something in front of a man, and while at first it looked like a game of "got your nose!", the glowing purple orb she pulled out of the man's head was something else entirely. And it screamed in the minds of everyone nearby until the woman stuffed it into one of dozens of tiny figurines attached to a simple flaxen belt around her hips. The man collapsed immediately and she addressed the crowd with a very masculine voice, a perfect match for the scream everyone had heard.

"Bow before your new gods, and make ready yourselves for sacrifice!"
Then she reached for the next onlooker.

That's when people began to scream.

And only then did the third portal person move. He took a kopesh sword from his waist and held it high in the air, where it suddenly grew to about ten times its size. Then he began swinging the oversized blade at the crowd.

The harvest had arrived.

Around the city, other portals had opened too.

It had been a hunch. As one of the city’s “basic” heroes, you know? The ones who are street level, lack an organization or a super team? He did not have the information web they did. He could not make the contacts they did. So, he set himself up in a highly busy and prominent location, under the expectation that after the heck that was yesterday, the bads would pull something stupid and flashy today. Somewhere public. Lo, and behold: stuff!

The black visor of Cheshire’s motorcycle helmet caught the sun as he stared down from where he was, attached to the side of a building directly above the giant sets of screens in Time’s Square. Above main sets of screens you always see. With various monitors, one above the other above the other. Waaaayyy up high. He could do that, cling to walls? His power. Part of it.

He hung there, and looked down on the square as portals opened. One big one, then more and more all over the area. At some point in-between the extra portals opening and the primary one’s appearance, bad guys had started hurting people down below. From his vantage, he could not have responded in time to save the initial victims. And he had also been busy.

Yeah, it’s stupid when superheroes have cell phones. Unsightly bulges and the ability for people to track you. Usually he did not keep one with him. But as bads had begun appearing, and he had pulled it out with a free hand, Cheshire had been glad to have packed one.

He dialed a SUPER. Surely, one call among dozens would not get singled out. He put on speaker phone, and cracked the visor so he could be audible. Then he began telling the people on the other end of the line what he saw.

Portals. Times Square. People dressed like out of The Mummy, attacking people. He said he thought he saw one of the local heroes in the area earlier, and hoped that idiot would pop in because he himself? Yeah, he felt in danger. What was his name? Holy shit that guy has a giant sword and he’s cutting a cat in half I gotta go!! Please send help soonest!

Elliott, AKA Cheshire, the green guy in the smiling motorbike helmet, hung up. Then, he began climbing down the building to engage.

The call came in to SUPER. A woman named Amelia relayed it to the mansion and the X-men a short time later, said to meet SUPER at Times Square ASAP. They would convene and respond to violent attackers in the city. It was good for Lenna that she had been in the city already, shopping.

Yes, the day before, the mansion had been attacked. Just because something bad happens, it does not mean we cease to live our lives. We do that, and the villains win. We hunker down in preparation for bad things, and we miss the opportunity to experience good things. She was entirely over simply focusing on bad. Which was why she had been impulse buying, to distract her from bad thoughts. Luckily, nothing important. As she had no expectations about actually keeping what she had bought. It would be lost, during the fighting. Most likely stolen. Just a discarded bag.

Her phone had relayed the information from Shin. He seemed like he was lighting up all the phones that day.

Lenna looked down at her plastic sack, what did she have again?

Well. She was taking up cooking. So. She had bought a set of knives. There was 7 pieces in the set. She had spent her fast food job money.

The set contained:

One tiny knife, paring maybe? 3.5”. For peeling and hulling fruits and vegetables, coring tomatoes, etc.

A knife, 5”, utility. The box had said it was ideal for:

- Slicing meat
- Slicing bagels and buns
- Cutting sandwiches
- Chopping vegetable
- Slicing herbs
- General kitchen tasks when no other knife will do!

Another 5 incher, called a Santoku knife. Good for more precision and control when cutting or slicing things like vegetables. And specially designed so stuff didn’t stick to it, like meats. Using air pockets or some such.

An 8” slicing knife. Good for slicing thin cuts of meat, and so on.

Getting the picture?

A serrated bread knife. 8” long. This one would be perfect. She loved crusty bread and cheese of the goats.

Then there was a 7” knife, which was another Santoku. The big brother to the smaller one.

And finally an 8” chef knife. Useful for, what? Cutting chefs? The box had said… chopping nuts. How morbid. Slicing meat. 7 oz in weight.

Yeah. She was within walking distance of Times Square, so Lenna just walked over to a bench and opened her cutting knife set up so she could free all the blades. That was like $150 worth of cutting precision blades, 70% off, on sale, a $530 value.

Rapidly, she freed them from their packaging then started using telekinesis to attach them to the outside of her black leather jacket. To the sides of her blue jeans, where applicable (read: would not cut her). And to her orange sweater.

She could snap 16 objects at a time with telekinesis, so this was not so bad. She attached 6 of the blades, and held the paring knife in her hand. It was so cute. She could easily throw it at an enemy’s vitals.
What a waste of precision Japanese steel. They would never come clean. This kitchen set was now her combat set. It was well-made, at the very least.

As an X, she probably should not actually kill anyone. So maybe not “vitals.” But you can live a completely lifelike life with one eye. She would aim for parts that could heal… or she would intimidate, or cut other things.

Yes, people had fallen at the battle of the mansion. Yes, she had put several to sleep with tranqs, then things had fallen on them. Did she call that a kill count? Do kill counts truly matter? It is how you act that matters. Or something. She hardly recalled Cold Steel’s speech with her. But they had discussed stuff. And things. So. She did not dwell on it, she just did better.

Knives could still be incredibly useful. She made a note to look into hammers and maybe a really big boomerang, or else a warhammer. Baseball bats. Bludgeoning is less likely to immediately cause loss of life… properly targeted bludgeoning, at least. Avoid face. A warhammer… hmmm… what was in that shop window over there?

“Barry the Black Smith,” the shop said. “Keen replicas. Realistic. Fine materials.” A place like this would have fake ass katana, longswords you probably could not utilize as real weapons. Break pretty quickly. But as she stepped inside, she eyed the window contents. Lenna walked over to the shopkeeper, as people likely died in Times Square. She would be with them in a minute. Shopping came first.

A few minutes later, she was racing down the sidewalk, a couple minutes out from the carnage. She would invest in boomerangs another day. He could make one. Maybe a sturdy war hammer, too. Sturdier than the display model. But that was not what had caught Lenna’s eye. No.

A spherical shield, made of metal, painted some color or other, probably brightly, in some sort of pattern important to the blacksmith. She had purchased that. It had a star on its face. A lone star. The star was towards the top of the shield. On what she would later learn was a blue rectangle. Below that, divided into two sides, rectangles of red and white, respectively. She had strapped it to her left arm.

She had also purchased a stubby short mallet with a large head and fancy writing. He had called it runes. Said it was a replica of some myth he loved. It was heavy. That mattered more. Heavy enough she could make an impact with it, not too heavy to swing with her powers. Throw with her powers. That mattered most. She had strapped the paring knife with the rest, and was holding the hammer, wielding the shield. The shopping episode was over.

Lenna burst onto the scene five minutes later, breathing hard. Her eyes flicked around to the chaos. Lotta orange (to her) Egyptian-looking bastards with giant swords and skulls and screaming and stuff. Portals. Tons of stuff going on.

Lenna telekinetically lobbed the mallet, head-first, at the first person she saw. A woman in an obsidian mask, pulling out orbs of color from people.

”STOP,” She shouted.

Hammer time.