The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks brought Sylvia back to a time when she was happy and content to go crab hunting with her father. The sun and ocean playing in the background, mimicking the playful fun the two shared as they built sand castles and enjoyed a simple picnic. She missed days like that.

She shook her head to clear it. This wasn’t the time to get lost in the past. If they fell here, there’d be nothing to stop the Evil Dr. Midnight from taking over the rest of the tri-state area. No, not that one, the Pittsburgh tri-state area. Ohio and West Virginia had already fallen to the dastardly foe, who had somehow been able to repel everything the Hero Association had thrown at them. When it became clear that regular police and military intervention couldn’t handle her, they were called in. Almost every hero had fallen before the doctor, and now Sylvia and her team were the only thing standing between the doctor and her plans for conquest.

What exactly the doctor had planned afterwards was of no consequence, she must be stopped, here and now.

“Alright girls, target is inbound. We’ll have only one shot at the surprise attack. I don’t think I need to remind you all that the first hit is the most important. It’s going to cripple the enemies' attack powers and movement. Without the first strike, this fight will be a hell of a lot harder to win.”

“““Roger!””” came the reply shouted in unison by my three team members. At face value, our squad looked well-disciplined, but I could hear the very slight mocking tone from all three of them, a tone I refused to disapprove of. We had come so far together after all, and this will be the toughest fight we’ve ever had, but we were ready.

“Positions!”

Another roger, and the other three, jumped spectacularly in different directions. Operator Erin went southward and got comfortable in her makeshift bunker there. Operator Rin ran north and jumped into her twenty-foot tall mech and activated the illusion spells we had worked together on for over a year. An electrical hum signified the machine was powering up, and two identical mechs joined the original. They wouldn’t be able to take too many hits, but they presented like run-of-the-mill illusion spells. The trick with this spell was finding a way to give those illusions some solidity, and we finally got a breakthrough when Rin discovered that you could use magic to “slow down” light. How it worked, I wasn't certain, but slow light down enough, and you’ve got yourself just the particle bit of the light. It wouldn’t give the mechs the same amount of punching power, and it wouldn’t take much to blast through the “illusions” but it’s just these sorts of tricks we needed right now and all of us couldn’t be prouder of Rin.

Finally, Operator Denise took a position behind me by roughly fifty yards and made herself scarce. She had the easiest and hardest job, backing me up. I knew my strengths, and I’ve seen the footage of the battles the other heroes had with the doctor, and I knew I’d fail if it was just me.

Speaking of me, I took my place at the spearhead of this arrangement, and together we formed an arrow, pointed directly at the incoming enemy. We decided to use some old war tactics with some new tricks, hoping that we could pierce through the heart of the invading force straight at the doctor’s position in the middle of the chaos.

That would be my job. After Operator Erin did her thing to confuse the enemy soldiers, I would take advantage of the chaos and dispatch as many as I could, while Operator Rin waited for my signal to start rushing the doctor’s machine. That’s when it would really get dangerous.

I mentally ran through our mission statements and tactics for the hundredth time today, only finishing in time to see the first black dots of the enemy soldiers peering over the hillsides. I reflexively shuddered. The doctor had found a way to fuse biology and machine and was creating some truly horrific bug-machine hybrid monsters, subservient only to her, and using them as her main force. As much as I put on a brave face, I couldn’t stand bugs. Especially these kinds. They had far too many limbs and eyes and too much hair, and were far too big for me to be even remotely comfortable with. My skin crawled, and every neuron in my brain fired at once, screaming at me to run away as fast as I could.

“Not getting cold feet, are ya boss?” Rin teased into the headsets we all wore.

“S-Shut up! It’s just some overgrown bugs. I can handle them.” I grimaced at the stutter giving my fears away, and the peril we all faced together couldn’t dampen the laughter that followed from the small exchange. Even though we were all operators for the Hero Association, we were best friends before all this might and magic became our daily lives.

The laughter died completely when I gave the order to begin the assault. The bugs had grown ever too close for comfort, but I held out until they were within close combat distance. The second I gave the order, a spectacular white light with rainbow silhouettes fluttering throughout launched into the sky from Erin’s position. The light beam arced high into the sky and spread out to create an umbrella of brilliant light around the battlefield. I flipped a switch with a thought, and my suit faded the visor of my helmet to the kind of face shields that could stop even the most powerful forms of radiation. We had captured a few of the bugs the doctor made and found that they became disoriented when in the presence of light when the light shifted between several spectrums and levels of radiation. The trick was getting a spell that lasted long enough and generated the light in a random enough pattern to make that happen. Magic, despite its ability to bend and break most laws of physics, didn’t like to be random all that much. We had to go with a spell that chain-reaction cast other spells in response to air molecules, letting nature itself cause the randomness needed to shift the intensity of the light around. We were lucky that today was a breezy day.

It was working too! I signaled that I was headed into the fray and blasted forward through the horde of bugs, my trusty light sword making quick work of the exoskeletons. The speed at which I ran wasn’t enough to outpace the splatters of bug goo and tiny machine parts, though, and I had to hold back a gag as I turned the battlefield into a rainstorm of enemy corpses.

“Sylvia! Something’s wrong.” Came Erin’s voice over the helmet radio. She had joined me on the battlefield shortly after launching her spell and was fighting her way closer to my position.

I dispatched the nearest bug and jumped backward to give myself some space to respond. “What’s wrong?”

“The bugs. They’re not reacting like they did in the tests.”

I surveyed the battlefield and she was right. In the past ten minutes we spent thinning the numbers, the bugs seemed to be adapting to the ever-changing environment and were back to getting into organized formations.

“Keep fighting, but get to a safe distance the moment you think you’re about to be overwhelmed.”

“Roger!” Came Erin’s voice, and we continued our ballet of swords.

The fight got progressively harder as the bugs became more and more organized, and they were soon back to using their old tactics of bait, run, and ambush that had made them so deadly against so many other heroes. It wouldn’t work on us, though. I called for Erin to back off and meet me closer to the initial front of our lines in the battlefield.

We made our way there in record time, glanced at each other, and nodded. We both knew we had to detonate the surrounding area. We were lucky to have had a few days warning about the army making it’s way here, and the association took advantage of that and had planted an absurdly massive amounts of composition C-4 around the field. The trigger mechanism was barely outside the blast radius, and the suits we wore should be able to shield us from the worst of it. It was still going to suck, though. I stopped the flow of magic to the hilt of my sword, and the blade fluttered a bit and disappeared. I stowed the now empty hilt against my hip, the magnets in my suit activating and holding it securely. I spread my legs to shoulder width apart, and angled a punch at the earth in the spot that was casually marked with several coats of spray paint. Sure, it wasn’t the most subtle way to hide the detonator, but we’d rather have it exposed and easy to access than hidden and missing it in the heat of the battle. The telltale click of the detonator sounded as my fist buried itself in the earth, and a truly powerful explosion tore the land asunder. In response to the blast wave displacing the air fast enough to cause a sonic boom, our suits activated dozens of six inch high stilts to protect our legs against blow back from the power of the blast. Thankfully, the top part of the suits held up to the rest of the explosion and after a quick question and answer over the comms, everyone seemed to be fine. The bugs didn’t have such luck, though. As the dirt and debris finally cleared, we could see that a vast majority of the bugs were dead or disfigured. Any that still moved were clearly in no position to continue fighting.

“You’re fooling yourselves if you think removing my main force made me any less of a threat.” Came a loud, but lilting voice. The dust cleared in the breeze and the tall figure of a woman became clear as she walked towards us. She wore a skin-tight black bodysuit, a red scarf that fluttered in the wind, and a ceramic face mask that was held on to her head by simple Velcro straps. Instead of a face, the mask was decorated with arabesque patterns drawn in pitch-black ink that seemed to glow.

I balked a little. She had been standing in the dead center of the explosion, surrounded by explosives and flying shrapnel, and she didn’t have a scratch on her. In fact, she didn’t even have a speck of dirt on her cloths. She strolled calmly forward, her body language full of confidence. “I know you’re the very last of the Hero Organization’s members that stand a chance against me. Once I take you four down, nothing will stand in my way.”

I knew how monologues went by now, and wasn’t fool enough to be baited into a response. Instead, I lowered my stance and reactivated my sword, holding it in both hands.

“My, my, my, tenacious, aren’t we?” She held her left hand in the inside crook of her right elbow, and her right hand came and rested on the cheek of her mask. I could swear her mask was blushing as she said that.

Opting to let my actions talk for me, I charged forward and began with a flurry of swings. Left, right, left, right, feint then left hook as I let go of the sword with one hand and followed through with another swing. The doctor deftly dodged in perfect sync to my movements, and I couldn’t help but feel like we were dancing.

“Rin! Back me up.” I shouted into my comms.

The sound of jet engines roared over the significantly reduced hills and decimated landscape as the twenty ton machine flew towards the doctor, much faster than should be possible for such a large machine. The doctor stood ramrod straight and blocked the punch from the large machine with a single outstretched hand.

“What?” Rin shouted.

The doctor and Rin began exchanging blows. The fight between the exceptionally large machine and the small doctor were almost comical. The machine was large enough to only be able to punch down, and the doctor was just dodging or deflecting all the blows like they were nothing. Rin was joined shortly by her two illusions that were coming up from behind her, the copies not having access to the kinds of spell craft that Rin used in the legs of her robot to pull off such quick maneuvers. I knew this was the perfect time to pull off this feint, so I launched myself back into the fight at the same time the two robots came up on the doctor and Rin. I swung my sword as the other two punched in sync with the main body. The doctor dodged my blade, deflected the punch of the main mech Rin was piloting, and entirely ignored the two illusion spells. Perfect. She had fallen for it.

The magic bent and twisted and slowed as the light used for the illusions slowed down to the point of semi-solidification and, though I couldn’t see it, I could swear the doctor’s eyes widened in shock. But it was too late, my swing and put her right into the path of the punches, and she was otherwise occupied with blocking the punch from Rin to move or deflect the two robots. Both fists landed square against her face and pummeled Dr. Midnight into the ground, making a satisfying thump sound. Everyone stood still and waited, gasping for breath. I ordered Rin to back off, both her and the two illusion mechs obeyed and retreated a few yards back and waited for another dust cloud to settle.

“That was wonderful! Abusing the particle-wave effect of light with magic, collapsing it down to nothing more than a particle. No wonder you four are the best the Hero Association has to offer. This fight is by far the most enjoyable I ever had.”

We all grew nervous. Avoiding the explosion was one thing, we all assumed the doctor had access to an array of magical artifacts for protection, but she took a punch head on without anything to dampen the blow. How was she able to get back up off the ground after a punch like that?

The looming figure stood inside the dust cloud and looked no worse for wear, and I feared we wouldn't be able to make it out of this fight. She had weathered all of our surprise attacks and just stood there, unharmed. I started to move to give the order to retreat when the dust fully cleared and her silhouette became clear. I laughed.

“What’s so funny, Operator Sylvia? Or should I say, Tyler?”

I stopped laughing. How’d she know my name? I wasn’t going to let on that she got to me, though. “Oh, it’s just your mask.”

“What about my mask?”

“It’s cracked.”

And it was, there was a small hairline fracture right where the doctor’s nose was. Not registering quick enough what I was planning, the small pebble I threw at her face made it through her defenses and landed square in the middle of her mask. Everything was silent for a moment, then the sound of fracturing ceramic came over the space between us as the crack expanded. When the cracks made their way completely through the mask it finally exploded off her face, the Velcro strap falling to the ground uselessly, and a beautiful woman with a shocked expression stood before us. She had raven black hair, deep crystal blue eyes, and the facial features of an Egyptian goddess. A light blush played on the cheeks of the doctor’s features.

Denise gave away her position by shouting.

“Nanai‽”

Tyler woke from the dream and sat up in the bed of the cot. Confused for a moment as to where she was, and a frown made itself known when she remembered. She laid back down and covered herself in the blankets once more, trying to will herself to go back to the dream she had just left, accidentally trying to do so with magic and found herself in the throes of a thought-stopping headache.

Thankfully it subsided shortly, but she was now fully awake, so she decided to try to relive the dream again and commit it to memory. It would make for an excellent story. But why was Nanai in her dream? Was that what she actually looked like? She had spent so much time asking Eris every little question over the past week that she habitually turned to look for her to ask what Nanai looked like, but stopped short when she realized she was alone. The feeling of the empty room came back to her in full swing, and she wished she had someone to talk to.

She sat up and tried again to observe the surrounding room. Near the side of the bed, in the middle of the room, was the metal folding table and plastic serving tray, still holding the neglected food. She briefly wondered if she could use one of the thin legs of the table to pry the door open, but upon closer inspection, the table legs were flimsy and bent easy. Less of a crowbar and more of a piece of sturdy foil. Trying the door again, she realized that this was one of those doors that automatically locked from the outside the moment it was closed. There wouldn’t be any chance she’d get through the door without someone opening it for her. So, that left her with rushing whoever came to bring her more food and trying to get past them. She just hoped there wouldn’t be any more locked doors. But she felt she could take the risk, as the people who abducted her didn’t seem like they wanted her dead, just held. For what, she didn’t intend to find out. She sat back in the cot and tried to pass the time by replaying the memory of the dream once more before it disappeared completely.

The door opened and Tyler had a brief flash of thought to do the whole rush thing now, but she decided to hold off when she saw the size of the person walking in. He was massive! Easily six foot something and broad shoulders to match. He had a handsome enough face and short black hair that was neatly trimmed and just a little longer than a military style haircut. Unfortunately, all this worked against him since he was one of her captors, and she found herself disgusted with his presence.

“Please don’t make that kind of face at me.” He sighed, and actually seemed a little hurt. He looked over at the tray of food. “You should eat something. I know it’s not the best food, but please?”

Tyler tilted her head at the man, confused. He seemed polite enough, maybe he’d actually answer some questions. “Why am I here?”

The man stared at her for a bit, pausing deliberately before speaking. “Are you vegan? I can get you something else if you are.”

Tyler bristled a bit. He obviously heard her question and chose to ignore it. “Why am I here?” She repeated, a little more forcefully this time.

The man scratched the back of his head. “Look. If I answer that, will you please eat?”

Tyler made a dramatic show of picking up the burger and taking a slightly too large bite of food before putting it back down and stared at him.

It took him another moment to speak. He seemed to be waiting for her to finish the bite of food. “Alright. You’re here because Marisa, and I guess my boss too, thinks you’re a threat.”

Tyler guffawed. “A threat to whom? I’m a kid. Am I under arrest or something?”

The man frowned. “No, you’re not. We don’t even have that authority, and honestly, I shouldn’t even be in here talking to you. Organization rules and all.”

Tyler was confused. She had expected completely stone faced, aggressive guards. Not this giant of a man who looked like he wanted nothing to do with anything about this place.

“So explain why I'm here, then.” She had long gotten over how she seemed to have so much more bravery in situations where she otherwise would be a quivering mess of fear. She just wrote it off as something Eris gave her when their souls merged. Thinking of Eris made her idly wonder when the small goddess would be able to find her and get her out of here.

“We’re not in the kidnapping game. Obviously. We normally just pick up artifacts and store them. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure why Marisa would want to kidnap a whole person. Normally, we just grab what we came for and leave, but she insisted that you, specifically, needed to be brought in.”

Tyler was not expecting this at all. She wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, but something about the demeanor he gave off made her want to believe him. “What’s so special about me.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me. You wouldn’t have happened to swallow a magic artifact recently?”

Tyler felt a little uneasy about the question, especially the offhand comment about magic. Looking over to the toilet in the corner, she started to get an idea of why she might be here. She debated on what question to ask next. She would rather not give away that she knew about magic and treat the comment as a joke. At least now she had an idea of how long she’d be here for and how long she had to plan an escape and execute it when they realized they weren't going to get their “artifact” the normal way.

She decided to play dumb. “You’re joking, right? A magic talisman?”

“Artifact.” He said, raising an index finger like a teacher.

“Whatever.” She looked at the awful excuse for a burger. She wasn’t sure what it would have tasted like warm, but she couldn’t imagine it tasting much better. “Any chance I can get a decent meal?”

The man nodded happily. “Of course. I’ll make sure you get something better than that.”

He turned to leave, but Tyler stopped him. “And some medicine.”

The man removed his hand from the door handle and turned back around. “Are you sick? Do you need any kind of special prescription?”

Tyler was a little taken aback at the concern he seemed to show. “No. Nothing like that. I’ve had a horrible headache since I got here.”

“Ah. Yeah, Marisa did say that might be a side effect of the bracelet. I’ll see if there are any meds in the office.” He turned to leave, but stopped before he was all the way through the door. “I’m sorry, by the way, however much that could possibly mean coming from me.” As he finished speaking, he let the door close behind him.

Bracelet? What did he mean by bracelet? She wasn’t wearing any—. Tyler looked down at her wrists and found a thin golden bracelet on her right wrist. When had that gotten there? She tried to remove it, but it proved too difficult, catching just so on her thumb to make it impossible without hurting herself more than she cared to try. What is with this thing? And how’d they get it on my wrist in the first place?