9

Dear Pierce,

And now the game. I'm coming, you son of a bitch. Maybe it isn't tactical of me to warn you that I'm coming, but I want you to feel the fear. The fear of knowing that you aren't going to make it to your next birthday. That every night, when you turn off the light and go to sleep, that could be the night where I finally catch up with you.

A nice game of cat and mouse. I mean, the chances of you being in Australia are slim, to say the least. But I can start there. You, of all people, know that there is no hiding. All of them are dead! You knew this was going to happen when you told me about the bloody pieces! All of them dead. Except for me. Which is unfortunate for you.

I don't even know if you're in a place where you can get this e-mail, which could ruin the fun for me, but whatever. I'm sure the events that are soon to take place are more than enough to make up for it.

And maybe, just maybe, the fragments will have done what you said they might. Maybe I do have new powers. Imagine the feeling, of not only my mind ripping through your flesh, but possibly excruciating electrical pain. Or perhaps each organ inside your body slowly drowning, drowning in water and the miserable execution of your own existence.

Imagine your death, Pierce, cause it's coming.

See you soon,

Riley

Signed 15/05/2018

Anna was attracting weird glances from the people shuffling around her, but she supposed she couldn't blame them. Her hair colour was rather loud. But she couldn't quite figure out how to get it back to normal. She had gone from simply imagining it reverting back to its natural light brown colour, to literally feeling at every part of her scalp and hair to try and change it.

They would have looked an odd trio anyway, but the hair just topped it off.

Shannon was tapping her foot impatiently, but even Anna knew not to disturb her at the time. Melissa was looking around at every little detail in the terminal, trying anything she could to get her mind off the loss of Andrew.

"Hey, Anna."

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me, or does that look like..." Anna looked over to where Shannon was gesturing subtly. And there he was. Riley had also decided to catch a flight. Shannon started to get up.

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"Going over and disposing of the bastard."

"I see a few problems with that plan." Anna was looking at Shannon sceptically.

Shannon considered her for a moment, before concluding, "I don't care."

Anna held her back once more, brain ticking, wondering how to convince Shannon that doing that was the worst idea she'd ever had.

"I have a better plan. Just get me to any computer in this place."

Shannon again considered, and again made a move towards Riley. "Shannon! Stop. Do you want to do this here? With all these people in the way? With all these people here ready to be killed?"

"Okay, okay, I'm listening."

"We can still follow him. I can transfer us to his plane... if you can get me to a computer."

Shannon was about to argue, before conceding defeat. "Are you okay with going behind your mother's back?"

"I feel like this is the best move. She'll understand." Anna sounded less sure of herself this time though.

"We're going to get something to eat. Stay here and tell us when we need to get back. We'll bring you something too."

"Okay." Melissa didn't make eye contact.

They walked back to the security gates. "If you were a laptop, where would you be?"

"In a laptop case, or in a backpack."

"There." Anna pointed out a man, who had put his backpack down. "Let's go."

"Nah, just wait a second. Prepare yourself. Open the zipper with your powers. Make it as easy as possible to get the laptop."

Anna focused on the zipper, but only succeeded in making the bag fall off its resting point on the chair leg. The man looked, before returning to his book. "Ah!"

"Hey, a blessing in disguise. Crawl around behind him and go underneath the chair. Get the laptop that way."

Two minutes later, they were looking at the company website. "Okay, so how do you get in here?"

"I hack in. First I find the page to get the company flight lists, then log in and move the passenger lists around so that we are on Riley's flight."

"Which flight is Riley on?"

"Don't worry; I memorised the number. Ah, crap." Anna was shaking her head at the screen.

"Don't tell me you can't get in."

"No, I can, it'll just take a little longer. They've updated their firewalls recently; usually I'd have an immediate entry method but that isn't the case here."

"Yeah, I'll just assume you know what you're doing."

Anna wasn't listening. She was focusing too much on the coding. Enjoying the complexity of the code. She wished she had more time to explore with it, but she didn't have the time. "Okay, done. The tickets that we scan should allow us to go through."

"But it says the location on the ticket."

"It won't matter. They'll assume it was something on their end, someone messing up or their machine writing the wrong thing."

"I hope you're right."

So do I, she thought. She walked over to the man who owned the laptop. "Sorry we stole this," she said, handing it over, "but it was a matter of international safety." He immediately dived to look at his laptop bag, but when he looked back up, Anna was gone.

* * * *

"Get up. We're moving flights."

"We're what? How? And why?"

"Moving flights, because we're following Riley instead. Anna got into the database, or something, and changed our flights around."

"Following Riley? Are you insane?"

"Yes. There's no fighting it now. It's happening anyway. Come on."

"Wait. Join the line after he enters. He won't see us that way." The ladies did so, while checking their flight, Anna desperately praying that she had entered the right code. Shannon was the first to go through. The airport employee didn't look at the card too hard.

"Shannon Torres?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Seat 28C, through there.

Anna walked right through as well. They walked down the steps and onto the runway.

"Wasn't your hair pink before?"

Anna grabbed her hair quizzically and looked at it. It had turned back to her normal brown. She wondered about the effects of the blast. Maybe it did do what they said it would.

"Do you think that it's a new power? Being able to change my hair like that? Maybe the blast..." she trailed off, watching Shannon's mind wander.

"Oh, I know. I think it did. I think you have gotten another ability. Figura Mutante. Translates to shapeshifter. Vaguely."

"Sweet. Hang on. Where's Mum?" They looked around but didn't see her. The girls had left before, thinking that she would catch up, but now she was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe she got held up." But that notion was quashed as the cabin doors closed, and the flight attendants began giving the safety instructions.

"Where the hell did she go?"

* * * *

"Sorry Ma'am, your ticket isn't for this flight."

"Excuse me? My daughter and best friend just got through without any problems. Why can't I get in?"

"Not a clue miss, and honestly, it's not my problem. Go wait by your real flight. The one that's on your ticket."

Melissa blew hot air out of her mouth, but managed to stop herself saying anything she would regret. She whipped around and walked back to the gate that her plane was leaving from. She could get on that plane. But then where would she go? She didn't know how to find Shannon's house; she knew that returning home would be suicide.

Staying here could be more useful.

Plus, Shannon and Anna would find their way back, somehow, and collect her, and they would go to Australia. She could be productive while she was there. They called for the passengers to board the flight, and Melissa instinctively stood up, before making her mind up, and disposing of her ticket in the nearest bin.

Fortunately, she had money. Shannon made sure that all three of them were stocked up, just in case. It was a good thing, too. She strode with purpose, until she reached the car rental.

"Just one?"

"Yes."

"Level 5, D15."

She paid her fee and walked out to the car. It was an odd experience. Melissa hadn't ever been overseas before all the terror had happened, and she thought it would be much different. Somehow the security didn't seem as stringent as it was made out to be. Collapsing in the car, she made her mind up.

She would go back to the scene of the crime.

It made sense. It was unlikely that anyone was going to be there, not after everything that had happened. The place would be abandoned. And it might have some clues, she thought. She vaguely wondered if this planning was something to do with her abilities. Something that would have been easy to answer had Shannon been there with her. But she and Anna were both on their way to the other side of the planet.

Traffic was slow as she maneuvered her way to the highway. Lots of taxis, beeping their horns and generally being a nuisance to the average commuter on their way home from the airport. Melissa sat and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. This was too much like the cities back home, and she could feel the throbbing headache coming.

Unless it wasn't a headache. That was the other aspect of her powers, that she could detect danger coming and plan for it accordingly. The only question was, when would the said danger be coming? Would it be soon, or would it be at the mining place, where she was headed?

Last time, when the threat was right on top of her, she was experiencing a full-on migraine. This headache wasn't nearly as bad. But she could tell that it was getting worse, especially after she got on the freeway. And entering the compound, saw it reach close to critical mass.

"Ow. Yeah, alright, I know, there's danger coming. Can you stop, and let me use you to find the danger?" Oddly enough, her powers seemed to listen to her, and she straightened up, feeling rejuvenated and refreshed.

Her assumptions had been correct. The place seemed deserted. Even if it wasn't. She crawled around walkways, trying to use her powers to find the problem, and solve it. Of course, without any experience, Melissa was struggling to keep the headache at bay, never mind see anyone.

They hadn't bothered to clean up the blood spill. That was the first thing that came to Melissa's mind when she came across the room. She crouched down next to the stain for a moment, remembering the events that took place. How the fragments exploded.

How Andrew died.

The fragment room was much the same. There were scorch marks all over the floor, and some blood had been spilled in there too. Which was strange. Melissa got the feeling that something was off. The bodies were pretty much vaporised in the blast. Where'd the blood come from?

No, something else happened here. Melissa was sure of it. Maybe the guards were punished for allowing her to get past them and into the building. Maybe the scientists were punished for not realising that the fragments were going to explode. Her sense was telling her this. She also had some sense about something else.

She turned and punched the guy right behind her, knocking him out cold.

* * * *

When he came to, Melissa had the gun that she'd gotten from his possession trained on him. He smiled blearily. "I guess introductions are in order?"

Melissa gave him a look.

He sighed. "I'm on your side. At least, I think so. You were with Shannon, right?"

"Maybe."

"Look, you're the one with the genius girl."

"Okay, let's talk."

"I heard through the channels about what happened to Andrew. I'm so sorry." No response. "I really need to find out who did it, okay."

"It was sort of a mess. The fragments exploded, people were rushing in, and Andrew was just shot down, like he wasn't worth a fucking thing."

"Believe me, he was worth plenty. Both in the field, and away from it. A fantastic soul."

Melissa looked at him for a second, and smiled. "Yeah. You don't really care. You're lying. So, I'll ask again: who the hell are you?"

"Are you a Pugnator?"

"Answer the freaking question!"

"Okay. No, I'm not on your side. But," he winced, as Melissa drew the gun higher, "I agree that Riley is a problem. A problem that needs to be solved. He's killed just as many of our people as he has yours."

"Keep talking."

"Apparently he's going to Australia. Someone on your side sold you out. Sold both sides out. Pulled the ultimate bluff, and now he's living in luxury, while we have forty casualties."

"Yeah. We know that. We were headed there too, except I got caught up, I guess. We were going to go and kill him."

"Kill him? Oh no, could you really do that? How much has Shannon dirtied that mind of yours? No, we were planning on brainwashing him."

It was a valid question from the man. When it came down to it, could she really do it? Could she pull the trigger for cold, premeditated murder?

He grinned, sensing he'd struck emotional gold. "You know that Riley came to our side, after he found his true heritage."

"I was told that he was on both sides of the family tree, and that he simply chose your side."

"No, no. Riley was told for years by Shannon that he only belonged to them. Once he found out, he knew that Shannon had betrayed him, and he came to us."

"So what?"

"So, what if you aren't asking the questions you should be? What if it isn't me you should be interrogating?"

"Uh-uh. It was your guys who were sent to kill me. Not ours."

"Are you sure? Are you sure it wasn't 'your' guys?"

Melissa began to fidget. "And why should I believe you?"

"Because you need to know the truth, inside. You need to know where your loyalties should be. You need to know whether you can truly trust Shannon again."

Melissa ran.