It was back to the Police Meeting room for Victoria, they’d sent for Sylvester Sutton immediately after she’d figured out their relation, and were currently waiting for him to arrive. Colonel Goff was there along with Kaa who looked positively bedraggled himself, having been asleep when he was summoned and quickly escorted to the station. Goff had bags under his eyes and was nursing a coffee. Victoria had an energy drink placed on the table, she was still buzzing from the raid, and was still a fair bit disappointed it hadn’t resulted in anything. She takes her leather jacket off, she was wearing a navy blue shirt with a Triumph logo stitched into the back.

She notices Kaa staring at her and she rolls her eyes, she was reminded of her ex husband, who was a lazy bum and would spend the entirety of their marriage watching TV, drinking beer and not working. Kaa looked a little like him, with his tall skinny frame. She had divorced him and taken all that he was a week prior to the Emergence, just before she received the letter of acceptance to the new job. She was sick of toxic work conditions and relished the freedom offered to her by this new hero business. The first set of publicity rounds was long out of the way. The only real annoyance was being stationed under Goff’s command. She shook the memories away when the door opened and Sylvester Sutton walked in, scruffily dressed in army fatigues and a tank top. He sees Goff and immediately salutes.

“Colonel, may I ask why I have been summoned?” Goff stands and dismisses his salute.

“Sit down Sutton, its to do with your brother” Sylvester takes one of the seats, looking relieved.

“Have you found him? I went to visit him recently and he’d apparently moved away without telling me. I haven’t seen him since” He leaned forwards looking around at us, trying to read our faces.

“We have identified that your brother is the villain Eunos” Victoria says bluntly “Do you know anything about why he would do this?”

“Eunos?! My brother?” He looked shocked. “The last time he contacted me it was after the Emergence happened…” he then hits himself in the face. “I saw her, I ran into her, Eunos. Fuck how can I be so stupid” Goff stands up suddenly.

“You had an encounter with Eunos and you didn’t report it? We could have captured her long ago if you’d reported it!” He slams a first down on the table, nearly spilling Victoria’s drink. She gave him a nasty glare.

“I didn’t know, I didn’t put two and two together, the details were hazy at the time. So thats...my brother”

“I’ll ask again, do you have any idea why he’d do this?” He shakes his head.

“Cyrus always kept to himself. Fiddling with his car, he was a loner type to me. He worked at a job, in the car factory thats closing. I guess he was fired. He looked happy doing that job, way happier than normal. My brother is one of those...Emerged...disgusting”

“Excuse me?” Victoria was shocked. The usually blank faced Kaa looked quite angry too.

“You know the Emerged right? Those affronts to humanity, humans don’t have cat ears and tails-” He shuts up when I summon the spear and slam it on the floor with a huge thunk. It glowed green in the light.

“I think you’ll find I am very much human still thank you, stick to answering the questions and leave your pathetic rants to yourself” She stands and makes to leave the room. “I can’t stand to be in the same place as this bigot. I leave the interrogation to you Colonel”

“Yes yes dismissed, both of you” Goff sighs and gestures for Kaa to leave as well, he follows her out. Victoria looks at him, he still hasn't spoken a word. “Not much of a talker huh” Kaa shrugs back at her. “I like that” she gives him a smile, trying to lighten the mood. “What a mood killer, I’m going home” She pulls on her riding jacket. “See you around Kaa” He nods and gives her a small wave, watching her leave.

***

We’d been driving for a short while when Bridget suddenly lets out a string of expletives and brings the van to a halt in the middle of nowhere, she slumps down onto the steering wheel, resting her head in its perimeter. ““I haven’t spoken with her since Grandpa’s funeral. And she tried to rip the dress I was wearing off of me at it.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to her, family members are always a touchy thing to talk about especially around funerals. Her mum seemed to be really stuck up and bigoted apparently, I’d lost my parents at a young age and only had my hateful brother to deal with.

“Bridget, that sounds horrible. We better get this collar thing back though, there must be a reason she stole it” Bridget sits up straight with a sigh, rubbing her reddened face.

“Yeah. We better get it back. And I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.” All of a sudden I sense the movement of something else in the van, the engine chugs up to speed and a tinny voice speaks up from the back of the van.

“You know this is why I asked you to give me fire breath.” Dare had found a way onto the van when we’d dropped Non off back at the house. I didn’t want to say anything to Bridget about it, Dare might be useful. “So I could roast her verbally and literally.”

“Thats a point, does Dare have any abilities Bridget?” I ask her, ruffling the head of the robot that was now resting on the shoulder of the seat, she jump onto my lap. Bridget shrugs, keeping an eye on the road.

“She’s a completely sentient Autonomous Digital Entity, in a body designed for agility and speed, with wings that permit gliding, and connectivity through wi-fi and bluetooth if she so decides.” She shoots the fox dragon a glare, clearly not too pleased that she’d snuck on board. “The reason I didn’t give her fire breath is logistical. Also I don’t think flamethrowers are easily hidden, compared to stuff like a shock glove.” She takes a hand off the wheel to give Dare a chin scratch as well, I silently keep the van pointed steadily on the road. “Plus I’d effectively need to perform surgery now to upgrade her, and the idea of that is making me queasy.”

I look down at Dare, her wings folded against her back. I could mentally feel all the joints and bolts and everything holding her together using my power over machinery, I quickly retreat back to myself when I feel her shiver.

“So what's the plan then?” I ask Bridget. Dare gives me an odd look and stretches her neck out to investigate my arm. I hear a voice that doesn’t appear to emanate from any particular direction, but I can feel an annoyed vibe coming from Dare on my lap, she naws at the metal arm, making a noise that sounds a little like a sawblade scraping.

“Don’t go into my head without permission, Cy. Especially since I’m the only individual you can do this with. Unlike Bridget, I DO bite. Be glad I’m biting the metal arm.”

I quickly move my arm away and check it, there material looks slightly duller in sheen but not damaged. I whisper to Dare.

“Sorry, I can’t help it sometimes” I look to Bridget who is still giving me a weird stare.

“Klára’s waiting outside for us. That’s my younger sister, absolute sweetheart, but completely useless when it comes to dating. The clumsy butch. She’ll then ollie outta there after handing me the keys.” She goes back to concentrating on the road “And then I’m walking in, giving my mother severe verbal abuse, and beating the information out of her”

“I guess I’ll keep watch outside or something, then... your familial issues aren’t my business” I look out the window at the passing countryside, it doesn’t look too much different from home. Just a considerable amount more older looking cars and various odd looking buildings.

“Oh no you don’t. I want you to punch her in the tit. With your metal arm. Blunt weapon without fingerprints that you’ll be taking out of the crime scene? You think I WOULDN’T use something like that?” I was internally worried, the people I’d hit before were men who could probably have taken a punch, and they were seriously hospitalised from the altercation, I don’t want to kill anyone. Bridget pulls the van to a halt near a house, a person with light blue hair and a lot of piercings is waiting outside, I can see the familial resemblance between Bridget and Klára. She walks up to the vehicle and hands Bridget a set of keys.

“She went out to Church again for some reason, even though mass already finished. So you can prepare a spook.” She pats the van and strolls off down the road.

“Bridget shouldn’t we hide the van if this is going to take her by surprise?” I take a glance around the road for some hiding spots and I see an abandoned lot full of bushes not too far behind us. “Back there would be good I think”, I point to the area, and after a moment of deliberation Bridget puts the van into reverse gear and maneuvers us into the vacant space. I climb out of the van slowly and walk around to where Bridget is standing, Dare perched on her shoulder.

“Guess I gotta figure out cloaking tech as well. Hell at this point might as well have you steal a really fancy new van for me to fuck around with, ey miss villain?” I look around for a moment to see if anyone had a suitable vehicle before noticing Bridget’s laughter, oh right. Sarcasm. I follow her to the property, checking to see how hidden the van was from view. It was just out of sight beyond some dead looking bushes. I nearly bump into Bridget, who seemed to be hesitating in front of the door.

She looks almost like she is regretting what we were about to do, I don’t blame her. I extend my antenna and search for any CCTV cameras or security alarms and when I was satisfied none were nearby, I give Bridget a pat on the back. Hoping that would spurr her into action, I catch the end of her monologue: “ Can you imagine her constant toxicity with making it obvious she thinks you’re possessed by the devil?” I keep stum, not sure how to react to her tragic home-life and upbringing. She reaches out and unlocks the door, I can hear her breaths quicken. “I’m excited to go to hell, because it won’t be half as bad as this place.”

The door swings open, revealing not the lair of a supervillain, but that of what appears to be an ordinary home, shoes are lined up inside by a rack of coats. I can see an immediate flight of stairs and a few pictures line the room, some of which appear to have had marker pens taken to them, certain character's being blocked out. Dare makes some keening noises and nuzzles up to Bridget. There was just something slightly unsettling about the place, mainly down to some of the odd religious trinkets scattered about the place, crosses and segments of the Bible and whatnot. I didn’t like it, it reminded me of the family we kicked out of the bunker. “Let’s play a game to ease the tension. Count the Christs and Crosses.” Bridget gives a nervous laugh, clearly trying to make light of the atmosphere.

“I think I’ve seen at least 6 in the entry hall alone” I adjust a lock of silvery white hair that had fallen down across my face. Bridget moves into what I can assume is the living room

“Generally in Czech households you take off your shoes. I do not give two shits about this
place though, so don’t bother.” She sits down in the chair thats positioned in the middle of the room, Dare scrambles onto her lap. “Please close the door and stand to the side so you’re not visible from the hall. We’re going to Bond her.” I do as I’m told, taking a moment to take a look at an open book full of pictures that was strewn on a table nearby, it was covered in notes about recovering her son from the Devil.

“Bridget have you seen this? I think she’s gone off the deep end”

“I thought she had gone off the deep end when she decided HRT was making me lazy, before Grandpa Václav took me in at 18. Or when she tried to strip me at his funeral because I was in a dress, and she thought I was disrespecting the dead.” I sigh, I wish for a world where we’re not being treated as Demonspawn, or as tools of the military and the police. It got me thinking, the time we kicked the religious nutters out of that bunker, and the previous efforts of rescuing Non. Why should they control us? Who gave them the right? I grit my teeth. Bridget says no more and turns the chair around facing away from the entrance and towards the back windows.

It only took a few minutes of waiting in silence for us to hear the door open, the locks twisting and unlatching, Bridget signals for me to turn the lights on and I easily do so, a single antenna poking up from my head was all that was necessary. The woman enters the room slowly, clearly not entirely sure what was happening, she doesn’t notice me. Bridget slowly swings the chair around to meet her.

“Evening, Mother. I wasn’t aware you had gained a hobby in robbery.” She is stroking Dare like a parody Bond villain, she shoots me a glance and I step behind the woman, twisting her arm behind her back and shocking her legs with the shock glaive. She ends up kneeling in front of Bridget, restrained forcefully. I stay silent so Bridget can say what she wants, her mum speaks up first though.

“Why are you here Marek-” She is interrupted immediately by Bridget.

“MY NAME IS BRIDGET. AND IF YOU REFUSE TO USE IT I SWEAR TO YOUR VERSION OF CHRIST I’LL MARTYR YOUR ASS SO FAST HEAVEN AND HELL WILL HAVE A TUG OF WAR FOR YOUR SOUL.” I sigh and clamp down harder on her wrists, not enough to break a bone, I think. I’d hate to be deadnamed like that, I can feel Bridget’s rage seething through the room.

“Now. What did you do with The Collar. Why’d you use Non to steal it.” Bridget leans in close, lifting up a palm with electricity dancing between her fingers.

“I took it so His Holiness can replicate it. So that he can make you all confess, that you’re possessed by demons that changed you. Oh Marek, my boy, you shouldn’t be like this, look what they did to you.” I give Bridget a panicked look, the Church isn’t exactly poor. This could be horrific for us Emerged. They could enslave us. Bridget headbutts the woman, her cranium knocks back against my thigh. I knee her forwards again, she is certainly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“It’s Bridget. And if demons could change me. If demons could change me, you would have turned me into fucking Cthulhu years ago. You’re poison. You’re a toxin. You’re a cancer and a plague on the minds and bodies of children like me. You fucked me over more than you can imagine. And you don’t even have the balls to admit that it was all you.” Bridget let go of her face and slapped her again. “YOUR OWN FAULT. Not a higher calling from God. Not a Divine Purpose. No. You stuck your head up your ass, went to an oldass house, got validated in your preconceived notions, and used that to hurt me. To hurt Klára.” She twists a knob on the back of her glove. “Cy I suggest you let go for a second.” I let go of her and take a step back. I was going to enjoy this. Bridget grabs her by the neck and lets loose a continuous shock that arcs down her body. “I have a daughter now. Trans like myself. And I suggest you watch how to properly raise a child. You want to know the one holy thing you ever did? You performed a miracle. The miracle that I and Klára didn’t turn out like you, because of how evil you are. Although, I should credit Grandpa Václav with that one, being a positive influence and all.” She lets go of her and takes a step back, I could smell a really unpleasant scent “Cynthia. Please break her nose and arm in such a way it looks like she tripped down the stairs. And then put her in front of the stairs.” I look at the woman lying down on the floor, unsure whether I should do this. I know she was pretty evil but going this far, It could damn well kill her. I look at Bridget and see the fire in her eyes.

“Okay Bridget, but if the shock kills her...I’m not responsible” I kneel down and turn her over, punching her square in the face, breaking her nose and loosening a few teeth. I didn’t punch her at full strength, I think I could have caved in her face if I had done that. I grab her arm and give it a hefty yank before smashing her hand. “That should do it” Bridget kneels and gives her one final shock before motioning for me to take her to the stairs. I lift her up and look at Bridget. “Remind me not to get on your bad side...although you don’t exactly have anyone like me...other than me” She picks up her phone and I move her mum to the bottom of the stairs. I go into the kitchen to grab some cleaning supplies whilst Bridget deals with the phone call. Can’t frame it like she fell down the stairs if there is blood on the living room. I finish up and return back to Bridget, who was still on the phone.

“-Of course I do. Hell, could use an extra pair of hands. I’m gonna be converting the old van into a hovervan.” I smile at the plan, that would take some tinkering. I’d me more than ready to do that. I drop the teeth by her prone body and show Bridget the bloody tissues. “We should probably burn these” She nods.

“Not here though. Come on, time to go. Gonna hang around in the Van until Klára returns.” We step outside, I walk over the road to the van, keeping an eye on Bridget behind who is locking the door. I climb into the van and wait for Bridget to join me. A short while later Bridget’s sister reappears, Bridget hands her back the keys and a whole debacle then ensues, she enters the house, yells and screams out loud, very dramatically. It doesn’t take long for the ambulance to arrive and cart the bastard woman off to the infirmary. Klára jogs over to the van and hops inside, she examines me before extending her hand out for me to shake.

“I’m Klára. Cool arm, love the hair.” I smile uneasily and shake her hand

“I like your hair too”.

“She’s 19 Cy, and I don’t know how old you are, keep it professional.” Bridget gives me a harsh stare then starts the van and we take off, headlights beating a bright path ahead of us.