Anja was patrolling by herself that evening, in another part of town.

As much as Sonia would’ve liked to have accompanied her, she had to concede that it would’ve been a bad idea - she would’ve been vulnerable, and the only way to fix that would’ve basically been to have her walking around with spare GDF equipment, which wouldn’t have been a good idea either. So ultimately she stayed behind with Florrie to help Gartho monitor the situation.

Right now, she was walking down a more residential area when Gartho alerted her. “Heads up, I’m detecting another ‘shooting star’.”

Anja looked up. Right on cue, the streak of light came down, and it looked like it landed on a nearby townhouse rooftop. She wasted little time as she took off into a sprint, heading for it.

She saw the creature’s yellow eyes peer over the edge of the roof. It spotted her, eyes narrowed, before retreating. Did it actually recognise her? Or suspect she was who attacked it last time? Didn’t matter either way.

Anja rushed to a corner where she could change without being seen, and extended a ‘rope’ of flesh to grapple up.

The Namorrodor was fleeing from her, dashing and leaping across buildings.

Anja raced across rooftops after her target. “You’re not getting away this time, you cheeky git.”

It lead her to a nearby park, and once in the middle of it, it stopped and turned around, standing its ground. This immediately triggered red flags in her mind.

“Anja, you’re surrounded! I don’t know how they slipped under the radar, but I’m detecting multiple similar entities converging on your location!” Gartho warned.

As he warned, several more Namorrodors began to emerge from the dark, all focused on her, hissing and screeching as they bared their claws.

“Well, looks like our big friend here brought some friends. Awfully popular tonight, aren’t we?” Prometheus said.

“Now’s not the time, Pro,” Anja hissed, forming heavier concentration of armour, but in exchange for shorter-range blades, which she ignited. She needed the extra protection against multiple opponents who were likely to attack at once.

The beasts began to circle her, like predators cornering their newest prey. Well, she didn’t plan to be their next meal. She raised her arms defensively, watching their movements, with Prometheus providing her 360-degree vision, which was, frankly, still something she was getting used to. “Gartho, please tell me at least one of my sisters is coming.”

“No can do, they’re both occupied. Seems the timing couldn’t be worse, the witches and Hanzo came out of the damn woodwork at the same time,” Gartho said. “We’re coming with the ship to support you, just hold on until then.”

Oh. Joy. Easier said than done. Especially since that was when the beasts decided to attack.

“Don’t you die on us! Otherwise I’ll find a way to resurrect you and kill you myself!” Sonia snapped.

“Heh. I’ll try my best.”

This wasn’t like the movies or a TV show, where one would come at a time. No, at least four of them came at her at once, slashing at her with their claws viciously. She struck back as quickly as she could, wincing as the claws struck her armour, creating gashes in it. But as one Namorrodor retreated from burnt slash wounds, another took its place.

Despite her best efforts, one of the beasts managed to knock her down, slashing at her viciously before she kicked it off. Another tackled her from behind as she got back up, forcing her to extend flaming spikes from her back to force it to back off.

Wait, whose blood was that on the ground? Was that her blood? Well. Shit.

❖

“Why the hell aren’t we taking off already?!” Sonia asked urgently, as she stepped into the cockpit area.

“Engines aren’t responding,” Gartho cursed, as he got up, powering down the engines, “Florrie, status check on the engines!”

“They’re fucked! This ain’t some mechanical failure, someone’s sabotaged them!” Florrie said over the comms.

That set off alarm bells in Sonia’s head as she rushed out back to the engines, where Florrie was checking and trying to perform emergency repairs. Indeed, the engines seem to have been deliberately damaged from the outside.

Sonia grit her teeth. “How the hell did we not catch this?!”

“Whoever did it made sure to make the outside look intact. I think an illusion was part of it, the engines seemed to change when I took a close look,” Florrie said. “This isn’t good…”

Gartho also came out, taking a look. “This is alarming indeed, but it was a rush job. We can fix this. Sonia, Florrie, I need you to grab me some parts from the maintenance bay.”

Sonia didn’t need to be told twice, as she and Florrie got moving. They needed to get this fixed quickly, otherwise Anja might be dead before they even arrive…

❖

“Babe, I’m sealing up your wounds, but I can’t do it forever!” Prometheus warned.

Her armour was reforming, but not as quickly as she’d like. And she was losing blood. Not great, even if Prometheus could heal her. She was slowing down, leaving her more vulnerable as the beasts came at her continuously. They knew it was only a matter of time before she finally went down.

Sorry, everyone… At least I went down swinging, Anja thought to herself, steeling herself as she tried her hardest to keep it together.

Suddenly, a powerful surge of wind slammed into the pack, swirling around them and leaving only Anja unaffected.

“HEY, PUNKS! PICK ON SOMEONE YER OWN SIZE!”

A white and grey blur that was the source of the female voice slammed into three of the Namorrodor from out of nowhere, completely blindsiding them.

Then, Anja found herself falling right through the ground.

She landed on her butt, on what she quickly realised was a nearby rooftop. She was woozy from the blood loss. Was she hallucinating, or…?

“Okay, good, got you out just in time… Let’s get you a quick pick-me-up before you go back into that mess,” said a female figure next to her, as she seemed to turn to a hole in the wall of the stairwell that Anja realised she had just came through. And it wasn’t a stairwell, it was a portal. The portal suddenly changed, showing a room with a fridge, which the figure immediately leaned into, opening the fridge, looking inside, and grabbing a glass bottle with a label that Anja swore was Greek, with a creamy white substance inside. “There we go.”

As the figure turned to her, Anja properly registered that it was an anthropomorphic cat. Striking blue eyes, a big dark blue hair bang that covered one eye, white hair, and what Anja thought was white and pale blue fur, but the blue actually looked like it was the night sky, complete with twinkling stars. She wore a pair of pink and blue bracelets, a simple form-fitting dark blue strapless dress with long sleeves and black boots. And she was, well, very voluptuous and a bit chubby to boot. Like, Anja didn’t think hips could get that wide. She wore a cloak similar to what Logos was wearing the last time she had seen him.

The cat-girl handed over the bottle. “Drink this. It’ll get you back on your feet quickly, and better than before. Trust me. We’re with Logos. Name’s Europa.”

Oh. Well, if it was bad, Prometheus could just expel it from her system. She retracted her helmet, opened the bottle, and started drinking.

It was milk. She probably could’ve guessed it, but she wasn’t thinking super straight.

She put down the bottle once she was done. She didn’t feel anything bad, if anything the milk was rather delicious.

And then she felt the changes. The incredible rush of energy. Her mind feeling sharp as a razor as her wounds and the blood loss ceased to be a concern. Her muscles bulging.

“Holy crap, that’s a rush! I ain’t complainin’, though!” Prometheus said.

As she stood up, she could see the effects on her own body immediately. It was like she had been bodybuilding her whole life. “What the hell was in that stuff?!”

“Nothing, it’s fresh cow’s milk. Except the cow is one of my colleagues, and her special ability is that she can imbue her milk with all sorts of effects,” said Europa. “Now get out there and kick some ass.”

Anja decided not to ask any more questions, and leaped right off the building back towards the park, cracking the pavement as she landed.

Prometheus laughed. “Hot damn, now this is a power-up! Does she have more of those?”

“Don’t get used to it,” Anja muttered as she charged into the park, bowling over one of the Namorrodor and delivering a punch that she swore shattered its skull and sending it sprawling several meters.

She could see Logos in the air, cloaked and hovering, orchestrating the winds buffeting the beasts around them. And another cloaked figure was bouncing between the monsters, either slamming her whole body weight against them or slashing with sharp claws of her own. Anja was pretty sure she was another cat, but the cloak hid most of her features, with the only thing being obvious was that she was big and round.

And that was when the ship finally arrived, providing cover fire with its automatic turrets. “Sorry I’m late, unexpected mechanical issues. It’s a good thing you’re still alive, at least!”

“We’re pretty sure someone sabotaged the damn engine!” Florrie said. “Sure, it was an easy fix, but the fact that someone is messing with us is not a good sign!”

Logos landed as he and Anja went back-to-back. “Looks like we made it in the nick of time.”

“You picked one hell of a time to show,” Anja said as she kicked away a Namorrodor trying to pounce her. “But you saved my hide, so thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” said Logos as he stopped another Namorrodor in its tracks with a surge of wind, striking it with wind blades from his swords. “These creatures are native to this region, I assume. You don’t get anything like these in Gaia.”

“Shooting star spirit monsters native to Australia, yeah. They heal physical wounds quickly, but their regeneration doesn’t work well against fire.”

“Well. That’s a problem. Kat and I can’t produce fire, and Europa’s gift isn’t generally good for direct combat… Unless you want someone tossed off a cliff.”

“You said you might turn up, you didn’t say you’d bring friends.”

“After hearing your story, I figured you and your friends could do with some additional aid. My superiors decided it was in our best interest that this ‘Emperor’ was stopped before he could take over the surface.”

“I appreciate that,” Anja said as she noticed that the Namorrodor pack were starting to flee. “Looks like our targets are making a run for it.”

She immediately gave chase. Logos started using his wind powers to slow them down, and ‘Kat’ was still bowling them over. Anja even noticed a couple of portals actively appearing under the fleeing beasts, tossing them out of walls to throw them off and slow them down.

And then there was the wall of flames that inexplicably erupted, cutting off an entire street. On the other side were the Tactical Operations Unit, and they opened fire.

The Namorrodors screeched in pain and panic. Multiple men in suits and body armour came through the flames unharmed, holding steel spears lit aflame. Anja recognised one of them as Agent Yang. The mages wasted little time attacking the beasts, stabbing at them with the flaming spears.

Anja tackled one of them to the ground, spearing the beast in the heart repeatedly with flaming blades, ripping its chest apart. It clawed back, but soon enough it ceased moving as it died, letting out one last terrible screech.

“Bloody hell, these things don’t die quietly,” Prometheus said. “Gonna wake up the entire goddamn neighbourhood…”

Logos used the wind to set two of the beasts aflame entirely. ‘Kat’ grabbed one and shoved it right into the flame wall, setting it aflame as well, letting go before she was burned as well. A least a couple more were heavily wounded by the ship’s guns, leaving them easy pickings for the mages. One tried to escape up a building, but it was pinned to the wall by a flaming sword - Estella had arrived, even if it was a bit late.

The last one, the very first one Anja ever encountered, climbed up a wall and leaped over the flame wall, dodging bullets and escaping into an alley and into the night, before Anja or anyone else could properly give chase.

“Damn, one of them got away. It’s fine, we’ll track it down soon enough,” Yang said as he pulled his spear out of one of the corpses. “The problem with killing these things is that it’s a pain in the ass without an Aboriginal witch-doctor or medicine man. There’s no certainty that they’re even dead at all, gotta gather up the bodies and contain them for proper disposal later.”

“Thanks. Didn’t think there was an entire pack of the bloody things. Hopefully we took them out before they could hurt anyone,” Anja said, with a deep breath.

“You alright, ‘Prometheus’?” Estella asked, as she landed. “Wow, you’re jacked, what happened to you?”

“Magic cow’s milk, apparently, ‘Arcane’,” Anja said, coming up with a superheroine name for her elder sister on the spot. “Still, this bunch really saved my ass.”

“You’re welcome~!” Kat giggled.

“Enough pleasantries, we need to go!” Gartho called out, as the ship came down, extending the boarding ramp, “we still have that damn fox to deal with.”

“A fox?” Logos asked quizzically.

“A bake-danuki, or ‘kitsune’,” Estella said as she and Anja boarded, “our, uh, comrade is fighting him as we speak.”

“A friggin’ yokai in Australia? Oh boy the Commissioner is not gonna be happy,” Yang groaned as the flame wall disappeared, “just give us the location and we’ll be there to help.”

“Already sent to your phone, Agent Yang,” Gartho said, and looked at Logos and Kat, “are you two coming along?”

“Sure, why not,” Europa said, hood up, as she suddenly popped out of the ground via portal, stepping up onto the ramp.

“I don’t see why not,” Logos said, as he and Kat boarded as well.

The ramp closed behind them, and the ship began taking off.

The three Monster-kin took off their cloaks for the time being. Logos and Europa, Anja had seen before. But Kat was another matter - now that Anja could get a good look at her, she had the same eyes as Europa, and a similar creamy white fur colour, but her fur was also a simple blueish grey. To put it mildly, she was very chubby, and was even wider than Europa. She wore black boots, fishnet stockings, a black sports bra that failed to properly restrain her enormous chest, a short black and blue ‘skirt’, and a blue and yellow sporty jacket.

“So you’re the ‘Monster-kin’ sis and Sonia told us about,” Estella remarked. “Estella Kendrick, Anja’s older sister.”

“The two cats are definitely new, though,” Sonia said.

“Indeed, these are Katherine and Europa Selinofoto,” said Logos, gesturing to them, “they’re sisters, and also two of my comrades in the resistance. Kat’s ‘Gaian Gift’ is essentially ‘power fat’, meaning her body fat gives her incredible durability and strength. Europa can create and manipulate portals against any surface in her line of sight, though she can also set up several at once and be able to link them as she wishes.”

“Nice to meet you guys!” Kat said, purring as her thick fuzzy tail wiggled.

“Hey. It’s a pleasure, I guess,” Europa said with a casual wave.

“Well, we can talk shop after we bail out Nat from her bind,” Anja said as she turned to Estella, “weren’t you with Aurelius?”

“Yeah, but he’s escorting that reporter chick and her cameraman to a safe place. We got attacked by a bunch of witches,” said Estella.

“Oh, great, that’s a thing… Why are you jacked, Anja?” Florrie asked.

“I had her drink a bottle of special milk made by one of our other comrades, Clara. She’s a cow who can imbue her milk with all kinds of special effects,” said Europa.

Florrie’s face going red immediately told Anja that her mind was instantly in the gutter. Instead, she turned to Sonia. “Florrie said there was sabotage?”

“Yeah, someone wrecked the engines. Didn’t do a good job of it, though,” Sonia nodded. “We would’ve gotten to you a lot sooner otherwise.”

“Are you serious?! Great, just great,” said Estella, hands on her hips. “Who could have possibility…?”

A lightbulb went off in Anja’s mind. “That fucking fox. He saw Nat’s face, likely figured out her identity and discovered the ship. Must’ve sabotaged the engines in hopes that he could corner Nat without being interrupted.”

Estella’s eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, fuck. I thought all of this shit happening at once was a bit suspicious. It’s possible he orchestrated all of this just to get the opportunity to go after Nat. We need to get to her. Double time.”

“What happened the last time you encountered this ‘bake-danuki’?” Logos asked warily.

“He tried to rape Nat by using his supernatural charisma to seduce her.”

Kat gasped. Europa’s face hardened. “Yeah, okay, that’s definitely crossing a line. Let’s go kick his ass.”

Logos seemed to briefly summon up a furious gust around him. “I agree. Let’s show him that he can’t simply do as he damn well pleases.”

“I’m going to hang that damn fleebag by his entrails,” Anja snarled. If he touched even a hair on her sister’s head…