Jayson’s group is soaking wet and weighed down with rain, mud, and grime when they reach the outskirts of the Eagle Enclave. Despair kept them mute.

  Derrick carefully carries Lexia up to his balcony and puts her limp body over his shoulder so he can open his patio door. Then he carries her into his tree house. He eases her onto his nest of pillows, cushions and blankets, and after making sure she is covered and comfortable, he leaves, then returns a moment later carrying Dixie like a bride and gently sets her on the couch.

  When Derrick goes outside again, Jayson and Trafford are already climbing over the edge of his balcony, and they quickly go inside while Derrick scans the area one last time.

  Inside, Jayson sits on the floor, near Lexia. Dixie grabs a washcloth and a bowl of soap water and starts cleaning Jayson's wounds.

  Trafford sits on the couch and grabs a TV guide from Derrick’s coffee table while gradually turning the priestess ram figurine in his fingers.

  As the group sits in silence, Derrick pulls out a hidden radio in the cabinet and sets the dial.

  “Nermal, do you hear me?” calls Derrick.

  “Use my code name, Nasty Butler,” says Nermal.

  “I ain’t using your code name.”

  “Then there’s no conversation.”

  “This is serious!”

  “Exactly. Which is why code names are important.”

  Derrick sighs heavily, pinching the bridge between his eyes as he leans against the counter.

  “Bastard,” grumbles Derrick. “Nuke Baron, did the intel check out?”

  “It did. Sky Eye confirmed that the Fixers and Ramsey were at the address,” says Nermal.

  Derrick furrows his brow. “Who the hell is Sky Eye?”

  “No names!” snaps Nermal. “Look, I’m going to be quick. That safe house is loaded with razor wires and armed guards. I’m getting the gang together. We need to take out this safe house fast. Mama Bear is going to be pissed about what happened at the Spa, so the quicker we cripple her in this region the better. I’ll contact you when everyone is situated. Nuke Baron out!”

  The radio clicks off, Derrick stares ahead, eyes weighted with confusion and worry. He looks to the living room, sees Lexia is still asleep, Jayson’s cheeks are getting a scrubbing from Dixie, and Trafford has his feet propped up on the coffee table while he flips through the TV guide.

  Derrick’s eyes narrow, and the world darkens around him as he marches into the living room, focused entirely on Trafford.

  “You,” says Derrick, stopping next to Trafford.

  Trafford looks up, tightening his hold on the figurine, and Jayson and Dixie stare at Derrick warily.

  “Me?” says Trafford innocently.

  The room is put in a shadow as Derrick yanks the TV guide out of Trafford’s hand. He grabs the ram’s neck and slams him into the couch, eyes narrowed and his beak nearly touching his muzzle. One of his talon’s points at Trafford’s eye, and a growl rumbles in his throat.

  “You have a lot of explaining to do,” says Derrick.

  “About what?” asks Trafford.

  “How did Mortimer get out? And what is Ramsey Prosper?”

  “Ah, yes. Mortimer promised some more information after you left. He lied and managed to slice that big artery in my leg and then mauled my neck. As for who Ramsey Prosper is? Well, he’s just this guy, you know?”

  Derrick punches Trafford in the nose, and Jayson uses his cosmic wood sword to stand up, despite Dixie trying to keep him down.

  Trafford snickers and sniff the blood back into his nose, and Derrick grabs his collar with both hands, shaking him as the world darkens and his eyes grow wide.

  “I shot him with an explosive tipped bullet! But all it did was annoy him!” yells Derrick. He stops shaking Trafford, settling to pull him off the couch and glare into his eyes. “But when Ramsey saw you, he freaked out. What is he? And what are you? No games. No shit eating smiles. And I swear to God if you have melter pill in your mouth I will track down all of your clones and your boss and put a bullet in all of your eyes!”

  “Alright! Alright! Chill!” says Trafford.

  He puts the figurine in his pocket, grabs Derrick’s wrists, and squeezes. He holds his smile, but Derrick winces as his bones seem to bend, and he feels small tendril burrow their way through his sleeves and into his flesh.

  “Chill,” repeats Trafford, his voice low and his posture stiffening, forcing Derrick’s knees to bend, and the more Derrick bends, the weaker the shadows in the room become while Trafford’s eyes redden.

  Jayson pales at the sight, but he still gets in front of Lexia and Dixie, keeping his grip on his weapon tight at ready.

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  “You want to know who Ramsey is? Who am I really? Alright, I’ll entertain you,” says Trafford.

  He turns Derrick onto the couch and shoves him against the cushion. He takes a breath, wipes his hair, straightens out his suit, and smiles.

  “Ramsey Prosper was one of my employer’s top scientists,” begins Ramsey. “Then one day, he quit and took a bunch of our stuff with him. My boss thought that was messed up, so we’ve been looking for him for a while. Then he showed up on our radar because Reel Sight was so him. The problem is that we couldn’t pin him down directly. Until one day we found out he was in Bliss Town, being Mama Bear’s cook. Makes sense. Bliss Town is the intersection point between two interstates and four highways yet somehow remains small-ish. Your merry little bunch were also wreaking havoc, so my boss was like, hey these guys are totes kewl, let’s give them money to take care of a problem that benefits both of us. The end.”

  The group is silent for a few seconds before Jayson carefully steps forward.

  “Okay, but Derrick shot the guy with exploding bullets, and it didn’t do anything, and you’re like some kind of freak of nature,” says Jayson.

  “’Freak of nature’ is rude. I like to think of us as altered programs. Just like you.” Trafford looks at Lexia. “And her.” He nods at Derrick. “And you.”

  “Oh bullshit!”

  “Is it? Jayson, bro, my guy, you saw my hand melt off when I grabbed your stick. You can wield whatever that thing is because your program has been altered. Lexia did that weird glitchy thing because of her programming, and Derrick…”

  Trafford pauses, his palm stretched to the eagle, who is holding a pistol and now standing, glaring at Trafford.

  “Okay, I’m not entirely sure what your deal is yet, but the shadow thing is cool,” says Trafford.

  “I ain’t doing any shadow thing,” says Derrick sharply.

  “Okay, fine, be that way,” says Trafford. “The point is, Ramsey was part of the development program that created the serum that made you guys what you are. And when Ramsey left, he took a lot of it and gave the serums to Mama Bear.”

  Jayson and Derrick’s eyes widen, and Dixie shuffles up behind Jayson and grabs his shoulder as she nervously raises her hand.

  “Do I have special powers, too?” asks Dixie.

  “Nah, you’re boring,” says Trafford.

  Dixie groans and looks down, and Jayson tightens his grip on his weapon, his hands aching and body trembling.

  “How did we get exposed to these serums?” asks Jayson.

  “We tainted the medijects and other products in medicinal supply with the serum. Original tests were in the Toxic War to treat wounded soldiers. But then we thought the side-effects were cool, so we kept putting them in medicinal batches. We found it worked best when the subject was close to death, and we specifically chose attempted suicides because we figured that since they didn’t value their lives, we had no obligation to value theirs.”

  “Why the hell are you experimenting on people! Especially like that! Do you have any idea how messed up that is!” yells Jayson.

  Trafford scoffs dismissively. “Of course it's 'messed up', but what else are we going to do? The world got boring after the Toxic War ended.”

  Jayson's eyes narrow and his grip tightens on his cosmic wood sword.

  Dixie covers her mouth out of shock.

  “But look on the bright side. We found a lot of cool stuff with these experiments. We're going to help so many people it's going to make God retire, and let's face it, He does need to retire. He's been working his ass off for billions of years,” says Trafford.

  “Quadruple our pay for getting rid of Ramsey Prosper,” says Derrick suddenly.

  Trafford snaps to Derrick. “What?”

  “Quadruple our pay or we're not going near Ramsey.”

  “Really, man? Are you serious right now?”

  “I’m being dead serious.”

  “How serious are you about the dead part?”

  Derrick presses his pistol underneath Trafford’s head and Jayson hobbles to stand between Trafford and the kitchen. The tall ram looks at the two, sighs heavily and holds up one finger as he pulls out his flip phone.

  “Fine. Killing this body won’t kill me, but I really don’t want to walk back here and beat the snot out of both of you because unlike you two lunatics, I understand when someone goes through a stressful moment, so I’m being forgiving, right now,” says Trafford.

  “Shut up and call your boss,” says Derrick. “And put it on speaker.”

  Trafford mutters to himself as he opens his flip phone, dials a number and puts it on the speaker. The phone rang twice. Then...

  “Hello, Trafford. Why do you have me on speaker?” says Mr. Exe.

  “Hey, boss. The group we employed to take out Ramsey Prosper wants their pay quadrupled,” says Trafford.

  “Do it. I'll send a fax to your office in five minutes with the new reward amount.”

  Trafford smiles. “Thanks boss.”

  Mr. Exe hangs up, and Trafford puts his phone away and looks at the group. They are dumbstruck to put simply.

  “Alright. I’m done. Now I’m heading out. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” says Trafford.

  Trafford strides to the door, twirling the priestess ram figurine and humming a jaunty tune. Derrick glares after him, gun still clenched in his fist. Jayson takes large steps backwards from him, but Derrick walks forward with heavy steps.

  "Wait just a minute," growls Derrick.

  “Oh, what now?” groans Trafford, turning to Derrick.

  "You can't just drop all that stuff on us and waltz out of here."

  "I’m doing it right now," replies Trafford. "You have your quadrupled pay plus information that really shouldn’t have been divulged. What more do you want from me?"

  "How about some answers?" says Jayson, his knuckles white as he grips his cosmic wood sword but still keeping his distance. "You can't experiment on people! It's evil! And you still haven't explained what you are!”

  Trafford sighs dramatically. "It’s not evil. It’s innovative. Selfless, even. Because in the end, this world will be better, and God can finally get a break. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have emails to send."

  With that, Trafford slips out into the drizzling rain, disappearing into the shadows. The group stares at the open door with various levels of disgust, shock, and fear.

  "I don't like this one bit. That was way too easy. If I had money, I'd bet he's planning to rip us off," says Jayson.

  “Yeah, I’m getting that feeling, too,” says Derrick.

  Jayson sinks back beside Lexia, his shoulders sagged and eyes heavy. Dixie also sits next to Lexia and rams her fingers through her daughter's hair.

  "What are we going to do?" she asks quietly, her voice trembling. "If what he said is true about the experiments, the serums, Mama Bear having the serums…"

  Dixie’s voice drifts off, and Derrick holsters his pistol and begins pacing, the tips of his wings and tail twitching.

  “The best we can do is play along for now. We get close to Ramsey, figure out what he knows. Take care of him, save Bliss Town, and then we watch our backs with Trafford and his 'employer'."

  “But if we really do destroy the lab and take out Ramsey, Mama Bear will send more Fixers. They'll be better than Mortimer and Claribel, and since she has the serum, they will definitely be super powered… We're going to get bloodied,” says Jayson.

  “Bloodied? Maybe. But we ain’t dying to a bunch of thugs,” says Derrick.

  Silence falls. Rain gently raps at the window. Several moments later, Jayson sighs heavily and stands up, using his weapon as a crutch.

  “Okay, well I appreciate your optimism, Derrick, but I'm going home,” says Jayson.

  “It's too dangerous for you to go!” says Dixie.

  “I'll be fine. Plus, Derrick is here. He'll keep you and Lexia safe,” says Jayson.

  “Yep. Take it easy, Jayson. I’ll see you when I see you,” says Derrick.

  Jayson nods and quietly exits Derrick’s tree house into the waning storm.