40 D.D.R.

Mia offered to take the first hotel they found in Breksaw, a town built just off the interstate. Their new route would leave them with another two weeks until Fracassor.

Aimee pulled up to the hotel the next afternoon, and kissed Mia. "Love you."

"I love you too."

Mia & Serena got out, and Aimee watched them walk down the sidewalk to the hotel. Mia was wearing jeans, her right hand adjusting near the back. That, recognized Aimee, was usually around where she had to tug at her pants to get them around her thighs. Aimee had offered to buy her some better-fitting clothes, but she refused to think all that running had put much on her legs. *This* pair of jeans, she knew, was secondhand. Growing up wearing clothes from thrift stores, Mia had told her it was better if they were tighter than necessary.

Aimee recognized her blouse, too. It was a pair she had bought for Mia, back when Aimee saw a breakup in every unclear week. Now Mia liked to show her what it looked like unbuttoned. She had always loved to tease her.

Strange how bit by bit, a relationship could change to the point where you forgot that it was once another way.

When her gaze rose again, Mia was looking back at her. She smiled a little before stepping inside with Serena.

Thinking as she drove to the next hotel, she remembered that she didn't know much about Serena, aside from that she had nearly died her first week. That wasn't uncommon, but when she first texted everyone on this contract, Mia had been the only one who specifically requested no third-year take her protege. When Aimee & Mia had been on watch last night in the airport, Mia had been so sleep-shy she nearly cut in to Jeanne & Samuel's shift.

After Aimee dropped Samuel & Yuruko off, she checked in to a third hotel with Jeanne, in a room on the third-floor. Taking some time to wash herself off, she stepped out of the bathroom and saw Jeanne laying upside-down on her phone, the pouch on the nightstand.

"How's your protege doing?" said Aimee, and in the next instant -

- the roof started to shudder -

"Pouch!" shouted Aimee; a flash of Rider's tendrils, and she was suddenly standing with the pouch. Jeanne shot up beside her, and as the roof shuddered again -

- the floor split open as if an earthquake had struck it, and in to the sudden fissure the women fell, the entire floor above collapsing as they fell in to another room -

- and as Aimee fell, the world slowed as a reflection in a disturbed pond.

She saw a woman at the door of the room, facing them as soon as they had fallen, a set of nails in hand. Aimee swept her eyes up, nails pinned to the ceiling, and as time resumed, the two women fell again -

- on to the floor, and it split open again underneath their combined weight, throwing them down to the first floor backfirst - and the entire building started to collapse all around. The rain of rubble buckled and fell, concrete starting to collapse, and as the storm of material threatened to crush them alive -

" - Rider!" shouted Aimee, shutting out the screaming, and a whirl of steel went through the falling concrete -

- yet she found far more weight than she had expected, her blade bending underneath -

- and as time resumed, the rubble crushed her and Jeanne with the strength of a thousand. She thrashed and writhed underneath the concrete sea, and as she heard a weak gasp from Jeanne beside -

- a hasty spray of Dream around, carving a water-concrete hole above; yet the supply of rubble felt limitless, and the water still held mysteriously the two-ton weight -

" - Jeanne - e-enhance -" gasped Aimee, weakly moving her arm to Jeanne's -

- and the next scene was instant.

A titanic spray of Dream on the ground underneath, turning it to water-concrete; and the women fell in to the hole, a tunnel rapidly forming as Jeanne sprayed again and yet again - and through the bizarre burrow the women swam, the speed of time in their legs as they dived underneath and through.

Jeanne yanked Aimee up as she sprayed up, and with a final kick, the women burst out of the water through the hole above -

- to at last land in the parking lot, safe and outside of the hotel's ruins -

- and there, fifty feet separating them and she, stood the woman from earlier. Aimee and Jeanne gasped out the water, panting as they staggered and stood; but few could match Aimee's speed.

"Rider!"

Her tendrils curled, and in the next instant she was a dozen feet from the woman, rushing forward -

- but the woman swept a tennis ball from her back, threw it ahead and above; Aimee swept underneath, and as the projectile sailed over her head -

- it suddenly stopped mid-air, and fell with the density of a thousand tons; the projectile smashed and pinned Aimee's right foot, cracking her bones and stopping her step, Jeanne rushing behind. The counter stopped her for an instant, and as she yanked the nail out of the tennis ball -

- a second ball hit the back of her skull and threw her to the ground, her foe fleeing away as she threw a third -

" - Dream!"

- and the third tennis ball fell as if a feather, allowing Aimee time to peel out the second nail, the tennis balls back to their normal weight again. She drew to her feet, fifty feet separating them and their foe now.

"Dense-Dense-Revolution!" shouted the woman -

- and the next scene was instant.

A throw of nails at her feet and around, forming a sharp perimeter. The ground began to buckle, bursting inward and starting to collapse -

" - Dream." murmured Jeanne, spraying a platform of graphene below as the distance between their foe and them collapsed, a wide fissure now separating the two.

"We're - gotta flank, c'mon." grunted Aimee, and the women turned. Through the parking lot the two ran, asphalt collapsing behind, and they hurtled out to the road -

- just in time to avoid the rest of the parking lot collapsing in, leaving a wide and deep crater, the woman nowhere to be seen now. They ran through the road and on to the sidewalk, the gas station adjacent, and as they turned their eyes back for a moment -

- they ran direct in to a scarred Mia and Serena; the four staggered away for an instant, and spoke quick as they stepped careful.

"Revenant -" panted Jeanne - " - changes weight and density - tennis balls that pin you -"

"- yeah -" said Aimee, nodding to add confidence.

"Electrical, it -" panMia - " - it can break through my fucking electrical immunity -"

" - just - Mia, let me fill your wounds -" winced Serena -

"CONSERVE YOUR FOG!" shouted Mia, then immediately regretted yelling. "I- please, Serena."

The road behind began to buckle; a fissure shot down the sidewalk, chewing asphalt and threatening to swallow the four alive -

- and from the other end of the street, came a ray of lightning that missed narrowly Aimee's neck -

" - gas station!" shouted Jeanne, and as the sidewalk collapsed underneath -

- the four leaped off to the gas station's lot adjacent, rushing between the tanks of petrols as they spoke, three seconds separating them and the entrance.

Their eyes shot behind, and found the blond man in pursuit from the direction Mia and Serena had come, the female foe leaping across platforms of concrete, in pursuit from the direction Aimee and Jeanne had come.

"We - can go through the back wall, buy time? I can fill it!" panted Serena -

" - er - perhaps, but -"

" - got a different idea." said Aimee, and relayed it with a whisper, thankful for no civilians outside.

The women rushed in through the doors, running past the aisles, shoving more aside as they came to the back wall, and as their foes entered the lot -

" - no one move! Hold your breath!" shouted Aimee, and the four turned - " - Mia - enhance!"

The blue tendrils entered Mia's wrists, and in the next instant -

- a pillar of blue flame erupted outside at the tanks of petrol; their foes stared stupidly at it for a moment -

- and an explosion that threatened to blast to atoms the entire lot erupted, the ground shaking as the gas tanks burst in to smoke, the enormous blaze choking the entire lot and building -

- but the next scene was instant.

"Worldwide!"

A field of unmeltable ice grew on the floor, shooting to the walls and encasing them frozen; the shockwaves and initial explosions were blunted, and as the fumes hissed through the cracking ice -

"Dream!"

- a spray ahead turned the fumes to water-fumes, and as the tornados of smoke filled the air -

"Blackburn!"

- gusts of wind filled the hideous clouds, scattering them back the way they'd came.

The four held tight, coughing and cracking, eyes on the civilians still fortunately standing.

"Let's check." winced Aimee, stepping forward careful. A fire scarab melted the icy entrance, and they drew out to the ruined lot, rubble of the canopy scattered all around -

" - are you fucking kidding me?!" panted Aimee, still seeing one foe standing at the tip of the mountain, his arms blown clear off, chunks of his former weighted compatriot at his feet.

"You've given a perfectly conductive environment, Mia Schultz!" he panted, sweeping his right stump out; an electrical bolt shot from his shoulder, and as the ray of lightning sought the gas station of ice -

- for Aimee, the world slowed as a reflection in a disturbed pond.

'Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.'

She rushed ahead of the speeding projectile, and as a true hero might, took the hit dead-on -

- and shrieked in agony as time resumed, the projectile carving a gaping wound clear through her stomach and back, Rider's damage reduction ensuring only unconsciousness and not instant death.

The man stared at her stupidly for a second, stumbling back as the other three surged forward, fifty feet separating them now. His left stump flashed out and back, and another bolt of lightning sought Serena's neck -

- only in time for Mia's sword to block it -

- but she screamed as the current entered through the hilt, coursing through her skin; and it melted to liquid as she threw it rapidly away, only thirty feet separating the three left as she fell unconscious.

And fear filled Jeanne and Serena as they realized they were still standing on the remnants of metal tanks. The man's eyes grew feral as he realized, and as his stumps swept down, lightning crackling down -

" - Dream - rubber!"

- a spray of insulation around, and as the two women swept inside, the electrical current entered the metal mountain -

- and he shot up as if a hundred bolts had struck him. His body charred to ash in an instant, and the electrical current wilted.

"What the fuck?!" said Serena, daring not move. "Did you do that?"

"I- no, Mia's… Mia's unconscious, Aimee's unconscious, I- okay, is he dead? panted Jeanne.

"There's nothing when left of him, I- what the fuck?"

Jeanne placed her hand on Serena's shoulder. "Okay. Okay. Just - wait five seconds to make sure he's dead. Right?"

The two nodded, counted slow, hoping he truly was.

And to their hesitant relief, no attack came. Serena rushed over to an unconscious Mia, stifling fear as she crouched down, bleeding Lichtenberg scars all over her mentor's body. Noticing this, Jeanne crouched over, rubbing her shoulder. "You've got this. Saya used to do this a lot, too, so, um. You've got it."

Serena nodded. She took a deep breath, and filled Mia's wounds - with new flesh and blood. She ran over to Aimee, filled quick her wounds the same.