![[98 Epigraphs#013]] # Chapter 13 Everything in Raven’s body hurt. 2 transformations in one day was always a mistake. *Can’t do shit as a cat though.* Every transformation was the same, muscles tore and reknit, sinew melting and regrowing elsewhere. The worst was the hands. The intricate bones and muscle structures were delicate, and so many complex systems allowing the hands to move in so many ways. The worst Raven had experienced was 3 transformations in a single day, hawk, tiger, mortal. *Not doing that again.* The day before, Rowan, Jessie and Cody Whitlow had all died. Greg and Flora passed naturally to sickness, but had turned. Jessie and Rowan were both murdered, but Cody killed himself. Raven shuddered. Scrubbing blood off the floor, time after time as it slowly dripped. Eventually Jack just removed the ceiling tiles. The group had enough food for several months, but had started to cut down meals from 3 daily to 2. Raven sat with Charlie and Nova for lunch. “Nova, I wish I had your power.” She said, flexing her fingers. “I wish I didnt need them myself.” Nova said, sighing. “I don’t want to be numb all the time, but I do it anyway.” “I think the state of the world is a good enough reason, honestly.” Charlie said, Raven nodded. “It’s like constantly dying, and at the same time, being unable to die.” Nova added. Raven felt for her. The drawback to using her powers was constant cell death, extreme numbness, and cognitive overload, but being an Eternal helped with some of it. Eternals were more powerful than ordinary demigods, but were still mortal, able to be killed, but not to die naturally. Charlie and Raven shared their drawbacks, however Charlie rarely shifted. She tended to use her powers of Nythrana, which involved constant blood loss, but she didn't use her telekinesis or telepethy often. Ivy sat in the corner of the room, away from everyone else, scribbling in her sketch book. She’d been getting worse and worse over the weeks. Just a week before, raven had seen it, and even with the things she had experienced over the last day, it still made her shudder. There was a pile of bones and flesh, rotting and mangled. As realistic as sketching could get, reds browns and greens almost jumping off the page. Some of the dead had been tearing into people, others into animals. *We really need to investigate her.* Raven felt guilty about her accusation, but 3 people were now dead. “Charlie, how much does Jack know about Ivy?” She paused her eating, considering the question. “I told him about her early on, but I should bring it up again. It wasn’t so bad before.” Charlie stood, taking her plate with her as she went to the stairs to the roof of the warehouse. Most people were in the main room, at least all who could be. Rhett and Rose were in the med bay, Rose still sick with the wildfire type virus everyone was getting. Only 2 other people during the night had died from it, mortals Raven didn’t know. Jack wasn’t present in the room, instead patrolling the building perimeter on the roof. Raven left shortly, having already finished her meal. Nova walked with her. “You think it could be Ivy?” Nova asked, monotone, almost more of a statement than a question. “Its possible. We need to do something to find the killer.” Nova nodded. They walked to the med bay, where Corinne and Arden were recovering. They were new, but had shown themselves to be of value. Raven intended to question the two of them, due to their history with the DCIA. “Have you ever read the Dexter books?” Corinne was saying as the pair walked in. Jack and Charlie were there already, Rhett was next to Rose's bed, and they were chatting. “Excellent books,” Charlie nodded, glancing up at Raven. Corinne was sitting cross-legged on the floor by Arden’s bed. Arden herself was sitting on its edge, feet brushing the floor. They'd recovered well from their gunshots thanks to Aevala’s kid’s powers of healing. “Picture Dexter, but it's me, and I’m paid to do what he does.” Corinne continued. Her hair was starting to show at the roots, a dark brown. The rest of it was a mess of custom dyed hair, Purple, Red, and Orange. “So a serial killer, paid, with standards.” Nova said, near monotone. *She’s covering her face less now that the world has fallen.* It was a strange power she held, one her fellow brothers and sisters in both her parents houses lacked. She was able to form a type of veil to cover her ghostly side. “I've gotta satiate my need. I can keep it under control, but it's gotta eat, just like you or me. For instance, once we find the bastard who is killing people, i need to kill him.” Corinne noticed Jack’s staring, and added, “I got witnesses for everywhere I’ve been since I joined.” Jack stared a moment longer, but ultimately nodded. Raven looked at Rose’s bed, she was alert, and the couple were whispering. *They’re cute together.* So far post fall, Hunter, Alaina, Rose, Rhett, Charlie and Jack had all lost their singleness. Another reason Raven wished she had Nova’s powers. *Wouldn't feel so god-damn lonely.* The feeling had gotten worse since Jack became spoken for, by her sister no less. Raven knew it was her own fault. She hadn't realized how much she liked Jack. *Be still my weary heart. You’ll find someone.* But she knew those odds were low. Aside from Rhett’s group, and Corinne and Arden, there had been no more survivors. Raven doubted they'd ever have a true survivor count. Cell towers had died in week one, satellites had started to fall back to earth without command here telling them what to do. But if people had power, radios should work. *Bluetooth as well.* Raven would have to talk to Violet about that. Radio communication, Pagers, And Bluetooth commotion would all be ways to chat silently, to keep conversations private, and to monitor places. *Could also give Arden a better voice.* Jack turned to Raven, “Thoughts on Ivy?” “I’m concerned, someone needs to watch…” Raven started, but heard her voice in the distance. She left the med bay, looking around. “Hunter?” *I thought he was the shift after Jack…* “Raven, Jack, Nova.” He started, breathing heavily. “Vans, North.” “Shit.” Jack said, rushing for the roof. Raven followed, Charlie followed Nova through a loading bay door. The vans in question were like small moving vans, could hold a lot of people in each one. There were 4, parked with their doors open. There were at least 40 men and women out there, guns drawn. “Who the fuck do you people think you are?” Jack asked. “The highwaymen.” One near the front van said. “We shot a truck a while back, found it up at the Publix, raided the place and found out where you people were.” “Why come here? What did they ever do to you?” “Don’t matter. They found a group with a lot of shit. We want said shit.” --- “*Another group is here?*” Arden repeated. “*I don’t wanna get involved. They're outside with guns.*” Corinne signed. *Trouble just seems to follow us.* “*What do we do?*” “*Investigate Ivy, make our time worthwhile.*” Corinne smiled as she left the room. *Dammit.* Arden waved curtly to Rose and Rhett as she rose to go after Corinne. Her side throbbed, even with the children of Aevala’s healing efforts, wounds took time to heal. However, confronting a serial killer would be a horrible idea with the stitches. She wondered if the group outside was the same as the one who attacked them around the mall. *I should have returned and snuffed them out.* She felt a thud through the soles of her shoes, and saw Scrap abandon the girls petting him. Corinne lay flat on her back, a concrete post in front of her. *Come on.* Scrap sat, sitting his paws in her lap, then licked her face. Before she could wake Corinne back up, she felt a ringing in the floor below. The girls who had been petting Scrap scattered, and he defiantly ran toward the front doors. --- Nova dashed forward, hearing the glass behind her shatter. She summoned her adamantine ringblade, severing the head of the unsuspecting initial shooter. The other demigods acted slower, but she was looking for a fight. It had been weeks since her last altercation, and she’d almost killed Corinne and Arden upon entry the first time. *Guess I’m glad i didn’t. They seem like good people.* Corinne was similar to Nova in her urges, though Nova’s stemmed from her constant use of her divine powers. She’d used other ringblades, but didn’t like any particular one of them. She had four decades of experience with her powers. They were familiar and comfortable to her. A piece of divinity. *Like it even matters. They’re dead.* As a child she heard stories of old, heroic demigods, eternal warriors, the fall of the proud, the rise of the humble. She was her own person, but gods above, she wished she was more. She swooped low, cutting the hands off another shooter. *Idiot with a handgun.* Nova sensed a shot from the fourth van, but used her core power from Thanon to slip out of reality. She changed direction, slipping below the bullet, then reappeared into the mortal plane, ringblade in his femoral artery. She twisted the blade, swinging upward. *No kids for you.* She ended his miserable life with a slash to the neck. She dashed back over to the first van, slamming her blade down through the shoulder of a girl. The fourth van fired up, but Nova severed the left rear wheel from the axel, then shredded the other three tires with 2 ringblades now. She used her powers of Hela to form a pseudo sound bubble around her, silencing everything to both her ears, and the ears of anyone in the zone. Nobody outside would hear what was going on inside it either. She split the driver’s skull, then went to work on the remaining 2 vehicles. *You will go on to do great things, child,* She could hear her mother say, in her head. Even lacking in human feelings as the moment, she couldn’t help but grin savagely. Jack and Raven had both joined in at this point, but Nova paid them no mind. She was a tornado of metal, blood, and death. She kept the silence up, though it continued to nearly send her into unconsciousness. It was her signature, oppressive horrible silence, then permanent silence in death. She stole the life right out of the third and final driver, which caused a surge in the rapid cell death she already dealt with. She toned back all the power she was using at once, limiting it to just her core power from Hela, letting her shrink into the shadows at will. This let her leverage the numbness of Thanon to her advantage. Eternals were able to mix the drawbacks of powers between her parents, in small amounts at the least. But it was better than nothing. She stumbled over to the inside of the building, where house Aevala gathered. Several of them were removing the bodies immediately inside the glass wreckage. *If I just killed them on sight, these people never would have died.* House Aevala helped Nova recover from her use of the powers. She tended to be wreckless, something she’d never learned in 40 years. *Like aggressive radiation.* After a half hour of intense Aevala care, Nova felt more herself again, but put her power back up, and felt numb. *Comfortably numb.* “I can’t believe the third van got away.” Jack shook his head. Charlie was braiding her hair, Raven was a solid black cougar. “I slaughtered everyone there.” Nova said flatly. She did try to give some intonation, but it often didn’t carry from her brain through her words. “You got the last, and first two vans.” Charlie said. “You have to be kidding me.” Nova replied, finally successful in giving her words some life. “Nope. Managed to leave as you slaughtered the front van.” Raven commented, words falling unnaturally from her current feline mouth. She was using her large scratchy Cougar tongue to clean out her massive teeth. *The sound barrier. You idiot.* Nova scoweled, turning her attention to the stupid old dog at her feet. He was a handsome thing, pitbull, maybe 10 years old. His face was starting to grey, and his eyes were a bit cloudy. *Such depth.* Nova thought, scratching him behind his ears. “Old man, you remind me of an eternal.” She said. Scrap was his name, but per Alaina he preferred the nickname, ‘Old man.’ Nova looked up at Raven, “Where is Corinne and Arden anyway?” “Investigating Ivy for us. Ivy was acting so strange this morning, especially during the firefight.” Charlie said instead, taking a turn with Scrap. “Personally, I think we need to keep those two on a tighter leash.” Nova said, blankly as before. “I trust them. We probably need some homicidal women here.” Jack smiled. After a few more minutes, Scrap got off Charlie’s knee, and wandered off. Nova took it as a queue, and flew out from the med bay, into the warehouse floor. *Oh, gods no.* Nova saw Ivy there, with a long knife. She was swinging around at people, not landing any hits. Nova ran forward, blades out, but Ivy was downed before Nova could sever her head. Corinne had dropped from gods know where, lodging a makeshift spear into the nymph’s skull. [[14i Interlude]]