# Chapter 16 Nova walked alone down the Athens perimeter, about 2 miles from costco. She was taking a break from flying. it would be taxing to fly the whole 6 miles. She noticed a glint from a window of a nearby office building. *Guess vengeance can wait then.* She took off, using shadowform on and off to fly as a blur to the viewer. Nova flew directly into the window, tackling the man there, knocking his binoculars to the side. She pulled out her ringblades. The man shouted, pulling a semi-automaticc pistol from his holster. “You don’t want to do that.” “Why not?” Nova asked. “We’ve been watching you people. You dont have the numbers to attack us.” He sneered, but dropped it when Nova materialized closer. “Bullshit,” Nova said, knives now at his throat. “You will radio in to your people, and give a status update. I”ll let you live.” The man’s eyes were wide in fear, but he obeyed. “Combs to Center.” “Present over.” A rough feminine voice said in return. “Status update. No furthers have come.” “Roger, status again next hour.” “Yes Ma’am.” Nova’s prisoner said. She didn’t let him get another word out, instead she slashed his throat. Just then, the door burst open. Corinne and Arden walked through it, guns drawn. “Oh, well done.” Arden said aloud. “Wow, you already got the fucker.” Corinne said, holstering her gun. “Why’d you leave without telling anyone?” “I want,” Nova sighed, rubbing her forehead, “To take care of these fucking people myself.” “It’s a suicide mission.” Arden said, brow furrowed. “I am very well aware.” Nova said flatly, though Arden wouldn’t be able to tell. “Why in hell did you two follow me?” “We had a hunch you would be going to them. No use going to a suicide mission alone.” Corinne explained signing at the same time. Arden nodded. *Foolish mortals.* She had no reason to feel superior, yet she still did. She ignored the other two as they inspected the body. Nova instead turned her attention to the spy’s journal, but froze. The latest notation, timed 2 hours before, said, ‘1m1f.’ *Oh gods.* Moments later Corinne stood, seeing Nova frozen. Corinne peered over Nova’s shoulder, reading the notation herself. “Fuck. Well this got bad fast. They know Hunter and Alaina left.” “I crushed the guy’s radio. We need to find those two.” Nova said, then jumped out the window. Corinne and Arden met up down below. “I’ve got keys.” Corinne said, and the three went to the back lot. Corinne clicked the unlock button, and saw a car on the far end light up. Minutes later they were in, flying down the highway. The car didn’t have a radio, and used a weird makeshift fingerprint sensor, but Arden hot-wired, and the trio got out safely. Some rubber led off the highway not far ahead, so they slowed. Nova could see the tail end of a truck buried in a house. *Fuck.* She stopped at the top of the steep slope, and slid down herself. The other two followed, and they walked in the front door. The door itself was off its hinges, boot marks covered the floor. Nova saw blood trailing from the passenger side, to a corner of the room, then tracked outside. “Both of them were here, I doubt they got out with the boot marks on the floor.” Corinne said, “They might have a radio in the truck though.” Nova hopped into the driver side. Bullets and blood were in the interior, the radio toggle was shot off. *Just my luck.* She assumed the radio was on when the truck was, so she turned the key in the ignition. The radio display sparked to life, and she pulled the reciever from its holster. “Nova to base.” “Jack recieving. Are you okay? We saw you were gone earlier.” “Myself, Corinne and Arden are about halfway from the mall. By all appearances, Hunter and Alaina have been kidnapped.” Silence filled the room for several moments. “Fuck.” More silence. “They were dragged from the truck. I killed a man with binoculars looking out upon the loop. The truck itself is buried in a town home. I have no radio on me, and this piece of shit is destroyed from bullets and blood.” “They probably don’t know you’re following. Did the bastard spy say anything?” Jack asked, static all in his voice. “I forced him to say everything was fine and nobody was coming.” Nova could hear the smile in his voice, “Good. Keep a lookout. We will gather the dead and bring them there. This ends tomorrow.” “Works for me.” Nova said, “Over and out. We will be radio silent.” Nova, and Corinne got busy stripping down the truck buried in the house, while Arden ran up the hill to retrieve the vehicle they’d stolen from the spy. The group from the mall had taken next to nothing, so Raven and Corinne were able to find guns, food, and water still stashed in the truck. Arden had the truck pulled around after a few minutes, and the trio loaded it up. As they were driving toward the exit for atlanta highway, Corinne spoke up. “Would it be smart to hit them from behind this time? They’ve seen us come after them to spy.” Corinne was right, They hadn’t come from the back way yet. *Worth a shot.* Nova just nodded, passing the exit and driving a couple miles further to Tallassee road, then turned left to Middle Oconee bridge. After that was [[Michael Neal]] Road parkway. Neal had been a secession war hero in the south, so when a private investor bought the land and homes east of Tallassee, he named the new shopping center after him. *Old son of Arex did us proud.* Nova was less than 10 years old when the war started. The United States Federal government was beginning to unconstitutionally station troops in all the major cities in political opposition to the ruling party. They were trying to get President Goldstein in office for a third term, but they false flagged him the day before the election. Leah Feldman took his place in the party, but lost the election. Instead of a peaceful change of power, she blamed the presidential assassination on the right-wingers, and refused to give up power. Soon after, she declared martial law, and ‘restructured’ the government. Kentucky was the first state to fall victim to it, only being freed toward the end of the war, thanks, in part, from Michael Neal. Thanks to the shopping center and office buildings, Nova would have a great vantage point, but rather than fly up and be spotted, she opted to make her way inside with Corinne and Arden. *Stairs. Painful but necessary sometimes.* Nova couldn’t remember the last time she had to actually use stairs. *Guess I do have some privilege.* Arden and Corinne both had rifles, shying away from more modern technology. Granted, ringblades weren’t the most effective when the enemy had guns. Especially when Nova carried her blades backhanded. The blades themselves were rather simple, a small recurve and a wicked point. The metal had a slight coloring like anodized titanium, with a matte finish. Nova took lead, Arden between her and Corinne. The three stayed silent, the occasional clank or thud sounding from the dead in the floors above. --- Charlie raced back to the truck she’d been planning to use to herd the Maws toward her, for use at the mall. Charlie hopped into the driver seat, starting the truck back up. She’d been out of the truck, trying to get into a neighborhood off of highway 29. She was about a 20-minute drive from the mall. Jack had sent her a message, relaying the plan, which had drastically changed. Before she was to gather the dead into a heard overnight, then they’d assault the mall the following morning, but that changed when Hunter and Alaina were captured. *Dammit dammit dammit.* Charlie swore to herself. *Jack will have already arrived when i get there.* As far as she knew, Nova would be doing the surveillance, and would join when she saw the rest of the calvary, but at the same time she didn’t have a radio. She took the exit near Athens Tech, taking the loop northbound. She only hit two of the dead on her way, the front glass luckily not shattered, they wouldn't be able to have it replaced. She hung right at the Tallassee exit, opting for the back route to the mall. Charlie wasn’t about to be the first to the mall and get slaughtered. She passed an office building, but stopped when she saw people on top of it. *Fuck, I need to be more careful.* She drew her ringblade, the unbound one Jack had given to her, what felt like the day before. Before she could leave the truck, a figure jumped from the roof, and landed in front of the truck. A pale and ghostly face popped up, Nova. “Oh, thought you were one of the mall people, till you jumped.” Charlie smiled, despite the circumstances. “You don't have a spare radio, do you?” Nova asked flatly. Charlie could see a hint of a smile in her eyes. “Uh, possibly,” Charlie said, reaching into the back seat for her backpack. She shuffled through it, pulling out a small handheld radio. She opened the glovebox and found her other, in addition to the one in the truck’s dash. Charlie handed the one from the backpack to Nova. “Everyone safe?” Charlie asked. “Rhett and Rose are still inside, best we can guess.” Nova said, looking toward the mall in the near distance. “I’ll need to see how far out Jack is.” Charlie thumbed the button on the side of the radio, unsure of herself. “Charlie to Jack?” “Jack receiving.” His voice sounded through the small speaker on the radio receiver. “I am at the office building to the north-east. Nova is as well, she has my spare receiver.” “Good. We are rolling up to the exit. Honestly, I think we will come in guns blazing. Corinne brought pesticides with her when she first came to us. We are going to use chemical bombs.” “That’s a great idea, actually. Are we gonna breach? I wish we had a SWAT Bear cat.” “We do have the hummer Hunter came across a few weeks ago. It’s loaded up with all our spare diesel. Before we get to the barrels, at least.” “That’s good. I’ll be toward the north-east, you guys come in first, and I’ll roll up after.” Nova had already flown to the roof of the office building, likely relaying information to the other girls, but jumped down once more. She jumped into the passenger side of the truck, then Charlie went back into drive. She rolled up just after Jack and the others, running forward to be with him. “Hey, girl.” He said, giving her a peck on the cheek. He was in the front of the hummer, loudspeaker remote in hand. Whoever owned the hummer before the fall had really tricked it out. “Members of the mall group, you know why we are here. You have members of ours, and we are here to get them back.” “Who do you people think you are?” A voice shouted over a P.A. system. “You fuckers are on our turf. Your people left your place to come watch us.” Jack signalled with his hand, the others would be behind the hummer as Jack would drive it into the building. “They aren’t gonna give Hunter or Alaina back to us.” Jack said, helping Charlie over the middle console. He started up the truck and rolled it forward. He accelerated, hitting the bay doors at a good rate of speed, crumpling them. Charlie and He both had guns, not her preferred weapon, but best suited against a bunch of mortals. She dropped and rolled out of the passenger side, rifle raised, and shot two young men rushing forward. “Everyone watch everywhere. These guys know this place better than us.” Charlie shouted over the noise of the others rushing in. She took the side path, Jack following. Raven ran toward the food court, still a cougar, and Corinne and Arden followed her. Nova flew overhead, dashing in front of Jack and Charlie. She didn’t have a gun, her shadow powers helped her dodge and avoid shooters. Jack got hit in the shoulder as he rounded a corner, Charlie used her telekinesis and pushed off of the wall to her left, then shot the man who’d shot Jack. A child of Aevala from behind them, both quickly healed Jack’s shoulder. The mall was crawling, but the hallway wasn’t so crowded. Charlie could hear shouts and gunfire from all around, but didn’t see anyone else until they were in the large central food court. She pushed off the back wall, into the middle of the turmoil. To her right she saw a cloud of darkness form, Jack’s power, as well as an oppressive silence all around. Nova. Charlie ignored the blood pouring from her nose as she fought tooth and nail. At some point, she’d run out of bullets, opting instead to use her ringblade. She bounced from wall to wall, avoiding one man, sinking her blade into another, and drawing gunfire from another. She got hit by a smaller woman from a floor above, so she pushed off the floor, then the upper floor behind her. Charlie sunk her blade into the woman’s chest, then jumped backwards, almost right into Jack. She narrowly dodged his sword. *He’s out too.* There seemed to be no shortage of men and women entering the bloodbath. Nova was using her power to an incredible degree, stealing life from the enemy at the risk of her own. Raven sunk her teeth into some, tearing into the bowels of others. Jack found the leader a short time later, and used his powers to create a cloud of ice-cold air. He shouted, running forward to kill the leader, but stopped, and Charlie could see why. Hunter and Alaina had been brought in, tied to the banister above. *Shit,* Charlie thought, pushing off the left side wall, then up and over, onto the second floor. --- Alaina couldn’t do anything but watch as she was tied by his neck to the railing of the second floor, overlooking the food court. Death and chaos swirled around her, Jack, Raven and Nova acting as miniature death tornados. Charlie was up on the banister to her left, tearing people apart. Alaina could only feel pain, it surprised her what all these humans could do to each other in only a few hours. She’d been tortured, beaten, stabbed, and things she didn’t want to tell a soul, even Hunter. But she knew he’d been through some of the same. Charlie severed the ropes tying Alaina and Hunter to the railing, heads dropping at her feet. After freeing Hunter and Alaina, Charlie jumped to the first floor again, but a shot rang out. Charlie landed awkwardly, in a heap. “No!” Raven and Jack cried out in unison, before a shockwave happened in the room. A combination of overwhelming silence and cold, as well as darkness. Before the darkness fell, Raven transformed herself into a much larger tiger, and tore the head off the initial shooter, the leader of the mall group. [[17 Deer]]