Ordagova sprayed a cleaning product over the table before he began to wipe it down with a rag. He hummed to himself as he worked, enjoying the quiet while it lasted until he heard the front door open. He looked up, and his smile lessened when he saw the black and red raven-hoopoe who stepped through the door.

“I wasssn’t exssspecting to sssee you back here ssso sssoon” Ordagova said honestly, setting aside the rag and spray bottle as the avian crossed the room.

“Change of scenery!” The black bird replied cheerfully, closing the door behind him and sliding off his laptop bag before placing it over by one of the tall stools at the bar counter. Returning to the front door to slide off his large white Christopher Lo’Raven branded walking coat and hanging it up on one of the coat hooks presented. “Dare I say I only got up an hour ago, especially after last night.”

“I can underssstand that” the snake hissed, walking up to the bird and reaching for his hand with both of his, holding it tightly looking down at the teenager with large amber eyes similar in colour to those of the raven's. “I need to thank you, from the bottom of my heart that you came to our aid.”

“Last night? Me and Avelyn stayed out of it for the most part. Your guys handled it.” Avory downplayed his role.

“Not ssso much lassst night, but the night before.” Ordagova insisted. “A sssecond later and I would have lossst Volcan. And, your sssissster sssaved the life of hisss brother too. That wasss the worssst night of my life, knowing that he wasss in imminent danger and I could not be there to protect him.”

Avory shifted his hands, releasing his left hand to reach up to Ordagova’s shoulder, and took the snake’s right, scalie hand into his own to shake softly. “It’s what I live for,” he smiled, “And if it wasn’t for him and his party interrupting me and Avelyn at that warehouse last November, I may never have known he existed, let alone in danger.”

“Either way, I am in your debt,” the snake insisted, “Pleassse! What would you want? It’sss on the houssse!”

“Seriously, you don’t have to. You know I can pay my own way,” the raven-hoopoe replied, lifting himself up into one of the tall barstools. “It’s too early for a drink. So I will settle with a coffee for now.”

“What kind?” Ordagova asked, preparing the coffee machine.

“A cappuccino per favore,” Avory replied.

The snake smirked a little as he started to make the coffee, “Un cappuccino in arrivo per il giovane!”

“Grazie, signore.” Avogadro smiled, “Non pensavo che parlassi italiano?”

“Quando puoi leggere nella mente di chi ti circonda. Diventa troppo facile imparare le lingue.” the proprietor replied, but knew he was testing Master Lo’Raven’s knowledge – and smiled when he saw the raven didn't quite catch what he had said. “‘When you can read the mindsss of thossse around you. It becomesss too easssy to learn languagesss,’” he translated for him, finishing up the drink and placing it on the counter before the bird on a saucer.

“Grazie mille,” he thanked.

“Prego,” the snake smiled.

“That’s certainly an ability I would love to have, myself. Would make life so much easier,” Avory commented as he took a sip of his warm drink, wrapping his cold gray hands around the warm white cup.

He shrugged. “It isss a blessing in sssome ressspectsss, but doesssn’t come without drawbacksss”

“I can’t imagine what those could be?” the bird commented, seeking an answer.

“Well, you may ssspoil a sssurprissse or find out sssomething you would rather not want to know. Or learn sssomething sssomeone doesssn’t want you to know, like how close you and your sssissster are-”

“HEY! HEY HEY!” The bird squawked, nearly spilling his coffee. “That’s private! Don’t look at that bit... Please” he quieted down, blushing and turning meek.

Ordagova chuckled as he teased Avory, returning to wipe down the remaining tables in the bar, “Dare I sssay it’sss rather adorable how clossse you two are. But your sssecret isss sssafe with me.”

There was quiet as Avory sipped at his coffee once more before reaching for his laptop bag and pulling out his Feather Notebook 9, opening it up to begin working on it.

“So, your boyfriend,” Avogadro spoke up again, “Isn’t he supposed to be playing music here?”

“Oh he’sss jussst coming now,” the snake smiled, walking up to the front door and grasping the handle, “Sssometimesss he playsss on the corner up the ssstreet before I open.” he hissed, pulling the door open the second the large red and gold bird reached it. “Good morning, handsssome~” Ordagova hissed, holding the door open and leaning in towards Volcan for a kiss.

Volcan leaned over to meet the snake halfway. “Morning, Orda,” he said, and looked into the bar to see Avory. “Ah, good morning to you too… Er, Avogadro, right? Or do you prefer Mr. Lo’Raven?”

The raven-hoopoe smiled seeing the two males kiss, before noticing the question directed at him, “Oh! Please call me Avogadro. ‘Mister Lo’Raven’ makes it sound like my father.” he insisted, standing up from his seat and stepping towards Volcan with his hand outstretched. Volcan grasped his hand and shook it, holding it with surprising gentleness considering how strong Avogadro knew the phoenix was.

He was significantly shorter than the other two males, standing at only 5’10” compared to the phoenix’s 6’4” or the snake’s huge 6’6”, but both birds made up for it with their tall feathery crowns.

“Wow, your hand is so warm,” Avory commented, bringing forth his other hand to grasp the phoenix’s orange palm, trying to capture as much of the heat as possible in his cold claws. He looked up at Ordagova beside them, “I see why you keep him around!”

The snake chuckled, closing the door behind Volcan before embracing the phoenix in a hug, wrapping his arms around his neck and laying his bare scalie forearms from his rolled up sleeves across the phoenix’s warm body, conducting as much heat as possible.

“It’sss a bonusss,” he hissed his tongue over Volcan’s cheek affectionately.

Volcan visibly blushed, his feathers turning a brighter red and his body becoming noticeably warmer. But he was smiling at the attention, and leaned into Ordagova’s hug. “Ah shucks,” he muttered.

“I love you, hon,” The snake reminded him, pursing his lips to plant another kiss on the side of the bird’s warm red cheek and held him closer, pressing his whole body against the side of the bird for both warmth and affection.

“Love you too,” he replied.

Avory watched on, in admiration of the beautiful display of affection unfolding before him, but also noticed the rising heat between his hands and the deepening of the phoenix’s colour. Fascinating, he thought, that Volcan’s colours and temperatures seemed to be reactive to his mood…

When Ordagova pulled away, Volcan excused himself, picking up his guitar case and walking over to his usual corner, humming to himself. He opened up the case to lift out his acoustic guitar and set it aside while he retrieved a stool.

Ordagova followed Volcan around, only to go behind the bar and begin preparing another drink, allowing Avory to watch the phoenix some more with intrigue. His clothes seemed a little baggy and worn, and the faint scent of smoke wafted over him as the phoenix passed. Rather then standing around in the middle of the bar, he approached Volcan again, somewhat shyly, not wishing to intrude.

“Sorry to be a bother. Please do say if I’m intruding” he began, “But… are your clothes meant to be like that? For your species?”

“Well, no, just…” Volcan looked down at himself. “Clothes are pricey, especially when you’re as big as I am, and playing music in the streets doesn’t make much money.” He chuckled. “Living with my brother over the winter didn’t really improve my wardrobe but I can usually find good stuff at the donation bins around the city.”

“I have offered to buy him clothesss before. Even sssome of my old ssshirtsss would fit him if it wasssn’t for hisss wingsss” Ordagova commented, bringing over a glass of cola for his boyfriend, placing it on the table beside him. “But he'sss too ssselflessss for hisss own good.”

“Are you saying that you’re homeless?” Avory asked with a pang of concern.

“Well, yes,” Volcan replied, tilting his head at the raven’s tone “Does that surprise you?”

“Well… Admittedly, yeah,” Avory replied as his voice became more apologetic, “I’m so sorry to hear that… I didn’t think someone of your… Abilities would be in such a situation.”

“My abilities are part of the issue,” Volcan replied. “You see, my powers… They have a mind of their own sometimes. You may have noticed by merely touching me, my body is much warmer than normal. But if someone I dislike or find annoying makes contact with me, even by accident, it can actually hurt. I can’t be in crowded places because of this - if someone got seared just by bumping into me, it’d raise too many uncomfortable questions.”

“So… you don’t mind me?” the young bird asked cautiously.

“If I did, you’d know,” Volcan replied with a sly wink. “But the heat’s mostly in my feathers, not my skin. My blood’s hot, but my feathers are actually fire made flesh, so you would definitely feel it there.”

Ordagova reached out to stroke the red and gold feathers of Volcan’s wing with a smile, seemingly unfazed by what the phoenix had explained, before pulling away and leaving the two avians alone.

At the mention of 'fire made flesh', Avory remembered the grotesque wound Volcan had on his back when he and Avelyn had intervened when the bounty hunters, Korban and Kieran, had attacked them. In his own fight with the husky he had seen that the canid commanded ice powers of some kind. 

“The ice!” the bird then squawked out unknowingly before looking away from Volcan’s face and down at his torso. Quickly shifting around behind the phoenix to try and get a better look at his back. “How is it? I saw your wound – it looked terrible! Are you ok?”

“Oh yes,” Volcan assured him, turning his back and shifting his wings aside to show Avory the spot where he’d been hurt in an opening on the back of his shirt for his wings, revealing that not a trace of the wound remained. “A little time consuming an open flame accelerated my healing process. I’m as good as new.” He said.

“...You can heal off of fire?” Avory sounded surprised.

Volcan nodded. “All phoenixes can do something like that. We don’t just wield our respective elements - we’re living embodiments of them. Lighris has been hooked up to a battery ever since Korban shot him, and he’s almost fully healed. I’m the same way - a big enough open flame and I can use it to restore my strength and heal my injuries. Although, the drawback is that the older and stronger I get the bigger the fire will have to be.”

The young bird listened closely to the phoenix and paused to digest everything, before gazing over his physique, “You err… Will naturally get stronger than… Errr… This?” he asked quickly, reaching to feel the phoenix’s strong pectoral muscle through his shirt before pulling away, pretending he didn’t do just that, but unable to hide a forming blush as the bird imagined such a sight.

“All phoenixes gain power with age,” Volcan replied. “Even more so if they train, just like anyone else. If I were at peak physical condition, well, that fight with Korban could have gone a completely different route.” At that he grimaced, as if having a thought - one Ordagova picked up easily. ‘Maybe that’s something I should be looking into.’

‘I dunno how much better you could look,’ The snake teased him, ‘but our friend here is already imagining such amazing images already of you for me to admire of you even more bulked up~.’

‘You don’t need to share his private thoughts with me!’ Volcan scolded the snake, unable to keep himself from blushing again.

‘Oh come on, dear. He’s been ogling at you ever since you got here!’ The snake insisted, ‘The only reason why he’s not asked you out yet is because he knows your already seeing me.’

“I’m sorry…” Avory then apologized again, noticing Volcan’s blush and tried to recall the reason which must have brought it on, “I err… Shouldn’t have touched you. I won’t do it again”

“Oh no, it’s okay!” Volcan assured him, realizing that Avory hadn’t caught onto the silent conversation between the other two 'We really need to be more careful about that,' he thought before he spoke again. “Like I said, if I hadn’t approved of the touch, you’d have known.”

“Right. Ok,” Avory said, trying to get the image out of his head that Ordagova was projecting back into Volcan’s mind to see himself. “Errr… If you two are together, why don’t you live together?” he then asked curiously.

“That would be mainly my doing,” another voice chimed in.

The three turned to see Vinge stepping out into the bar area from the hall leading to the stairs. “Pardon my eavesdropping - I couldn’t help overhearing,” the ice phoenix said cordially.

“Vinge has been staying here with Ordagova for a little while,” explained Volcan. “Like me, he doesn’t really have a home here in the city, so Ordagova offered to let him bunk here until the threat of P.A.C.E is finally done with. There isn’t really room for all three of us, and… Well, I guess we all need our own space, which is why I’m no longer staying at Lighris’ house either, regardless of his insistence that I do.”

The powerless bird gazed over the topless ice phoenix keenly, inspecting and admiring every aspect of his form, before stepping over and extending a hand to shake, bracing himself a little bit expecting a icy chill. Vinge accepted the handshake, and indeed his hand was cold to the touch, enough to make some of his feathers stand on end, but like Volcan his grasp was gentle and cordial enough. Though, his expression remained a stoic mask.

“Pleasure seeing you again, Red Lightning,” said Vinge. “Or, shall I call you Avogadro?”

“Avogadro, or Avory, even” he replied shaking his hand, “the pleasure is all mine.” he insisted. “And err… don’t mention that other name in public, please.” He added, looking warily around the pub.

“My apologies,” he said, pulling back his hand, despite Avory’s silent protest to continue to feel it, and laying it on the bar counter.

“So… you are an Ice phoenix? A mix of wind and water?” 

Vinge nodded, but his expression finally shifted then to a look of curiosity. “That is correct, though I did not expect you to know that,” he said.

“I’ve been studying ‘M.A.N.A’ for the past year and a bit.” he admitted, “I never dreamt that life forms like yours could have ever possibly existed to harness the same energy.”

Vinge’s eyebrow lifted. “Mana?” He asked. “I’m afraid you will have to explain that. Mana is the ethereal energy that powers magic, to my knowledge. My powers are not derived from magical energy, nor are Volcan’s.”

“Well I thought ‘mana’ fit it at the time, given the nature of these elements.” He went on to explain, “You see… I’ve been studying these elements that landed here on Earth from outer space millions of years ago; five known elements I call ‘Elcrum’, ‘Galrum’, ‘Pyrrum’, ‘Aqurum’ and ‘Ethrum’. Collectively I’ve called them ‘M.A.N.A’: ‘Matter of Ancient Novel Asteroids’.” he looked around between the three listening males, “Sure, maybe the name’s a bit forced; but it works.” He admitted, “Either way, these elements can be found in concentrated amounts where meteor impacts may have occurred far into the past, but there are traces all around us, even right now. Hence, ‘mana’.”

“Huh,” Volcan spoke up, rubbing his chin in thought. “That’s… Actually quite interesting. But I wasn’t aware there were elements that contained our… well, elements.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Huh. These ‘M.A.N.A’ things might get a little confusing in some places.”

“So you say the energy within these elements - namely Aqurum and… Galrum, I’m assuming? That they exhibit properties similar to my own powers?” Vinge asked. 

“When we first encountered you back at that warehouse, we thought you were genetically engineered soldiers infused with them,” Avory revealed. “Your bodies showed traces of these elements, making us think you were imbued with the powers of the stones. There was traces of Pyrrum,” he looked over at Volcan, “Galrum and Aqurum” he looked over at Vinge, “and Ethrum - which I assume was Tsumé.”

Volcan nodded. “Yes, that would have been her,” he said. “Ethrum, huh? And for fire it’s Pyrrum… Heh. I may not be a scientist but this is fascinating stuff.”

“You’re telling me.” Avory said looking over at Volcan again, studying his body, “you guys are just… I can’t even put it into words.”

“I think the word you’re looking for isss gorgeousss,” Ordagova teased him, reading his mind and causing the bird to blush as red as his feather tips and become silent. The flushed look on his face brought a laugh to Volcan, who slapped his knee joyfully. Even Vinge cracked a tight smile.

“Yeah… Ok… you guys are also very handsome,” he admitted, biting the bottom of his beak and looking away, his blush visible even through his black feathers.

“Don’t worry about it” the snake hissed, “It’s nicssse to get that out in the open; we’re all friendsss here and no one will ssscold you for it. It will just sssave you from going red like a tomato.”

“So…” Volcan began, looking over at the main entrance briefly to make sure no one was coming in before voicing his next question. “How much do you know about P.A.C.E? Have you encountered them at all before?” He asked Avory.

His flush went as they turned back to business, wearing a more serious look upon his face, “Only once; and that’s when I saved Tsumé from a group of them trying to catch her at her apartment. Before that I was actually beginning to think they didn’t exist despite your claim back in November.”

“That’s kind of their point,” said Volcan. “Complete anonymity.”

“I’ve spent years hunting them down,” Vinge added. “Even the criminal underworld, with the deepest connections, barely knows of them. They are secret to the highest level, eliminating everyone who knows of them and capturing those like us who suit their agenda. If we don’t meet their standards…” He looked at Volcan, letting him finish.

He frowned. “Then they kill you anyway,” he said. “Either way, we know little about them. We now know, thanks to Korban, that this Gabriel Rex is one of their leaders. We know that a Jacob Rex once worked closely with… Well, someone Rikyuu knows really well, and according to Korban, Gabriel is his son. We also know P.A.C.E has access to some very… Unusual, but highly effective technology. Tech you don’t even see in the possession of the world’s armed forces. Vertical takeoff craft with light-bending technology, closed-network communications, cybernetic soldiers, not to mention the worst of all, the Disruptors.”

“Interesting…” Avory rubbed his chin curiously, “I have since played around with some of their gear and found what I would call a ‘mini M.A.N.A frequency converter’ that looked particularly advanced to me. Otherwise I haven’t seen the rest. Although if I understood what you meant by ‘light-bending technology’, I might not have seen it anyways?”

"Likely not," said Volcan, shaking his head. "They're silent and transparent. If not for my ability to see in the infrared spectrum, even I couldn't see them. Fortunately, of the craft they have capable of such a thing we managed to ground two of them."

"You managed to take down an invisible jet? Two of them?" Avory blinked in surprise.

Volcan nodded. “Wrecked the first one but we took the second one completely intact,” he said.

Avory's face then lit up at the mention. "Intact? Seriously? You've gotta let me have a look at that, please!" He practically jumped at the possibility."Were you able to salvage anything from the wreckage?"

"Some things, although that's more of a question for Ayane. We left them with her and she's been studying them since," he replied. Volcan looked at Ordagova. "Think I have time to take him up to her place?" He asked.

"You have all the time in the world, if it meansss helping usss get thessse militantsss off our backsss." The snake hissed with a nod.

"Alright then," said Volcan, returning his guitar to its case and locking ìt. "It gives me a chance to check on Lighris too, to make sure he's doing okay." He added before nodding to Avory. "I saw a sports car on the street - that's yours, I assume?"

"The McLaren?" He asked, packing his laptop away in his bag and going to the door to grab his coat to put on, "Yes it is. I'll drive if you can guide me."

"Can do," he replied, nodding. He waved to Ordagova and Vinge as the two headed out the door, promising to be back later.

As they stepped outside, Avory nearly bumped into someone else approaching the bar. His eyes caught a glint of green before both of them managed to come to an abrupt halt and avoid a collision. 

"Oh, pardon me," the other figure, a green feathered avian Avory recognized, said.

Before Avory could say anything, Volcan spoke first. "Tsumé! Good morning," he said. "Good to see you."

"You too, Volcan. Been a while," said Tsumé, shaking hands with the larger phoenix. "Glad winter's over?"

"Oh you have no idea," Volcan replied, rolling his eyes. "I thought I was going to go crazy, spending all those months indoors."

"That… Allergy of yours, makes it pretty nasty to go out in the winter, yeah," she replied. Then, she turned her gaze to Avory, studying him as he stood, silently staring back. "And you are?" She asked, cordially.

The raven gazed over the female curiously as the two conversed, noticing the French accent in her voice, at lot clearer in person, and her features far more beautiful then what little he previously saw. There was a pause for a moment after the question before he spoke up, smirking a little and chuckling. "I believe you know me as your 'guardian angel'."

Tsumé's smile vanished, her expression going blank as she blinked in confusion. "E-Excuse me?" She asked.

Volcan moved over to her side and whispered something in her ear. In that instant, her eyes went wide, and she threw her hand over her beak to stop her from saying her next words aloud as she stared at Avory. "Red… Light…" she mumbled from behind her hand. 

"Mmp-HMM!" Avory cleared his throat loudly as she spoke. Trying to cover up her own voice and suggesting she keep it to herself, before stepping closer, to her other side and leaning in, speaking hushed, but not quite a whisper, "Well I don't even believe you knew that it was him that saved you from capture that night."

"I certainly didn't," she admitted, looking behind her up the street to make sure no one was approaching before they continued. "I should have recognized the energy bolts though - you zapped me with one the night we first met." She added, crossing her arms.

“Sorry about that,” Avory remarked before she continued.

"At the time I thought Lighris had come to help me, but I didn't see anyone." She then tilted her head as she studied him. "And yet… I can't put my finger on it, but something about you seems very familiar."

"Yeah, we will have to meet up at some point to talk" Avory agreed, "I have plenty of questions, but we need to get going, if that's ok?"

"Sure. Where are you guys off to?" She asked.

"I'm just taking him up to Ayane's place, to check out some of that tech left by P.A.C.E after our battles with them," Volcan said lowly, looking around the street briefly before he continued. "See if he can help us get a bit of insight. Two genius minds have to be better than one, right?"

"Flawless logic," she agreed. "Oui, then. We can talk more when you come back." She nodded to Avory. "You heard my name - Tsumé. What do they call you outside of your, shall we say, Sunday best?"

"Sunday best?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow, not quite understanding the reference, but answering anyway, noting her use of French. "Je m'appelle Avogadro. C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer enfin."

"Avogadro ce sera alors," she replied before reverting back to English. "I'll see you both when you get back."

With one last goodbye, the two males headed over to Avory's car while Tsumé approached the bar. She looked back at the McLaren briefly as it pulled away before she stepped into the bar… and stopped. She stood bolt upright, eyes wide with realization and standing stiffly in the doorway.

Ordagova and Vinge looked over, about to greet her when they saw her expression. "Uh… Tsumé?" Vinge asked, perturbed. "Are you alright?"

"Ho… Lee… Shit," she said. "That was Avogadro Lo'Raven… And… He's… Red…" she shook her head briskly, trying to clear it. "Orda… Coffee please. Strong coffee…" she said as she walked stiffly over to the bar and sat down. "I think my brain just blew a fuse… Or twenty."

"So, what do you do if you don't… Well… Live anywhere? If you don't mind me asking?" Avory asked as he followed the road out of the city, under Volcan’s guidance.

“Well, you’ve seen I’m a musician,” explained Volcan. “I was hired to play at Ordagova’s place back in October, but I still play on the street before opening. For shelter, I commandeered an old firewatch tower.” He leaned forward to peer out the windshield, and pointed up the mountainside nearest to them.  “Way up there, from which you can see the peaks and the forest below.” 

He leaned back in his seat, providing some directions before continuing. “The place was abandoned when the city was built, so it’s just sat up there unused for years. So that’s where I eat and sleep, but most of the time I’m strumming away either in the bar or on the streets, living off the tips people give me as they pass by.”

"Huh… So you're not exactly homeless then?" Avory suggested as the volcano orange sports car followed the road through the forests, "you can stay at your brother's, boyfriend's and out here. Even though you don't legally own here."

“If a hobo lives in an abandoned truck or a decommissioned train car, is where it's parked his official addres then?” Volcan pointed out. “What I live in is just something left behind. Yes, I could live with Lighris or Ordagova but, we all need our own space.” He added with a shrug. “Lighris rents, and he could decide to move anytime. Ordagova’s got a really tiny place, barely even big enough for himself - let alone both of us.”

"I was going to ask about that." Avory interjected, "If Vinge is preventing you from sleeping with him, then it must be rather small. How he reacted around you earlier suggests he would love nothing more than to cuddle up with you every night."

“And I’d love to. But Vinge needs a place to stay too, and with P.A.C.E already out for all our heads he’s safer with Ordagova,” said Volcan.

"He is safer with Ordagova than you are?"

 “He’s been hunting P.A.C.E for so long it’s a reasonable assumption he’d be their first target,” Volcan explained. “Vinge can take care of himself, to be sure, but P.A.C.E doesn't know where to find me, so I'm okay on my own.”

“Does he have a reason to have been after them for so long?” Avory asked. “He said he's been looking for them for years, but it sounds like you only encountered them a short while ago?”

“We did, as in myself, Lighris and Obsidian all being the first besides him. But Vinge has firsthand experience with them – long before any of us. Almost fifteen years ago, they took his father from him. He’s been looking for them ever since, to find out what happened to him - save him if he can, get closure if it’s too late.” He grimaced. “Ayane also suspects that it’s probably through studying his father that they figured out how to build their Disruptors. What you called a… Frequency converter, or something?”

“If that is indeed the same thing” he replied before his look soured, “How old is he? Or at least how old was he when his father was taken from him?”

“He’s twenty-three now - no… Twenty-four. His hatchday was in February,” Volcan replied, rolling his eyes to the right as he tried to recall all of the details. “He said he was nine when they came for them, and his dad fought them off to keep them from finding him and his mother. When they finally came out of hiding, they’d fled without a trace and taken his father with them.”

“That is… Awful,” Avory sighed, glancing over at Volcan briefly before returning his eyes to the road. “I… lost my grandfather on my 8th hatchday. It was terrifying, and heartbreaking. But I can’t imagine losing my father that young. Even if he’s now a total arse, still, to have him taken from me would be devastating.”

Volcan nodded, then lifted his gaze again to study the road ahead. “Next right, up ahead. Range Road 460-4,” he said, pointing.

“How much further is it?” Avory asked as he turned the MP4-12C right, onto the new inclined road.

“She’s almost right at the foot of that mountain, straight ahead,” Volcan replied. “It’s gravel most of the way so watch your speed.”

“I know how to drive, thank you,” Avory chuckles, “I don’t know when you passed your driving tests.”

“I don't drive. As for your first remark, so does my brother, and he still managed to scare the sparks off me going down this road full fucking tilt,” the phoenix replied with a snicker.

“You want to see rallying?” The younger bird smirked.

“What do you mean rallying?’ Volcan asked.

Without a direct answer, the speed of the car increased gradually as the paved road disappeared into gravel, winding around the bends between the trees; Volcan could clearly feel the car sliding a bit as Avory took the corners, gradually taking some corners side-ways as the rear of the sports car flicked out around the bends with handbrake turns, scaring the life out of the phoenix shouting protests and profanities. Yet not once did the raven seem fazed or out of control.

By the time they reached the long structure in the countryside, Volcan was all too eager to get out of the car, nearly kicking the door open and falling out onto the gravel in a mess of feathers. He clawed at the ground to pull himself away from the vehicle, panting for breath. After collecting himself, he pushed himself up on his hands, turning to look back at the grinning Avory in the driver’s seat.

“I… Am flying back,” he said, rising up and pushing the door closed before he started toward the large, corrugated metal structure on the property, rather than toward the house.

“Hey! All you had to say was ‘no’,” the bird insisted, climbing out of the driver’s seat, on the right side, and closing the raised door behind him. “I can drive slower next time. Besides, that probably wore out my tires to do the same on the way down.” he commented, briefly inspecting the two wheels on his side of the car before joining the phoenix, glazing over at the house curiously before turning his attention to the barn in front of him.

“Those would have to be some cheap tires to be worn out that fast,” Volcan remarked, looking back at the car. “They looked like pretty high-end rubber to me.”

“They aren’t designed for off-roading, but I will check them over later.” he replied, “So is this your friend’s place?”

“Yep, this is Ayane’s place,” replied Volcan. “She spends most of her time out here tinkering, but she’s been really helpful to us during these tenuous encounters with P.A.C.E. She even created a computer virus to spike their hard drives, erasing all data they had on us at the time in just a few minutes. She’s quite brilliant.”

“...Right” Avogadro nodded, sounding somewhat unconvinced, but certainly curious as to how good this Ayane really is.

Volcan approached the structure and tested the door. It was unlocked, and so he poked his head in. “Hello?” He called.

“In here, little bro,” a deep voice called back.

Volcan pulled open the door the rest of the way, leading Avory inside to take in the interior of the workshop. Various machinery was spread out throughout the space, arranged in an orderly fashion, but the entire wall to the left of the door was occupied by two massive air vehicles, the makes of which Avory couldn’t even begin to identify. At first, they seemed like variants of the V-22 Osprey, a military vertical takeoff and landing craft with maneuverable wing rotors that, upon achieving proper altitude, could angle forward to make the vehicle more akin to a turboprop plane. 

The propellers on this craft, however, appeared to be locked in the vertical position and not as maneuverable, and the propellers were encircled by a metallic ring, and had multiple blades. It likely could not fly as high as a normal helicopter but the sleek design and seemingly alien metal of the body spoke of how advanced the technology used to create them were. Also arranged before the two vehicles were tables lined with various items, including weapons and armour pieces, and something very large that was covered by a tarp. Something that looked… Oddly humanoid in shape.

Lighris sat in a chair on the opposite end of the shop. Much to the surprise of Avogado, the electric blue avian was actually hooked up to three car batteries - clutching a metal bar in his right hand with jumper cables fixed on either end. There was a hum in the air that seemed to be coming from the avian, and as Volcan approached he held up his other hand, motioning the two to keep back.

“Who’s this?” Lighris asked, cocking his head in Avory’s direction, his tone wary and he tried to hide his right hand from sight.

“He’s a friend, bro. He’s on our side,” Volcan assured him.

“Dammit, Volcan - this whole secret existence is getting a lot harder to keep secret,” Lighris said through a clenched beak. 

The raven rolled up a sleeve and then launched an electrical blast at the air vehicle beside them, “I’ll keep your secret, if you can keep mine.” Brit commented as he rolled back down his sleeve to cover his hidden wrist device.

“...What the fuck was that?” Lighris asked.

“He’s… Well, you’ve heard of the Red Lightning?” Volcan asked.

“That guy in the armoured suit that raised hell down in New York with that dipshit, the ‘American Dream’?” Lighris asked. “Yeah…” He looked at Avory. “You’re saying this is him?”

“It is,” Volcan replied. “He’s here to help us take on P.A.C.E.”

“Uh huh…” Lighris replied, clearly somewhat skeptical still. “Well, I’d offer to shake your hand, Red, but,” he held up the bar clutched in his hand again. “You probably know what I am already, and at present touching me might stop your heart so I wouldn’t recommend it just now.”

“It’s not like I’ve not had a thousand volts go through me before. It’s the current though that kills.” he commented before cocking an eyebrow at the lightning phoenix. “‘Raised Hell down in New York’? I stopped the criminal underworld from rising up and taking it.” he suggested, “And not too long after, saved you and your brother’s sorry asses. So thanks for the compliment.”

“FYI, I didn’t see any of that - apparently I took a rather nasty blow to the head when I was knocked over,” said Lighris, lifting his free hand to rub behind his head. “As for New York, I wasn’t there, so all I have is the bullshit the media spews and you know they only say what people want to hear.” He then looked at Volcan. “Also, ‘Sid called me. You let that husky walk, after he shot me?”

“He was deceived bro,” said Volcan. “We found out P.A.C.E planned to betray him from the get go - they were going to kill him as soon as the job was done.”

“Doesn’t mean we should have him on our side,” Lighris replied. “Soon as we get to the base they flash some cash and he turns on us again.”

“I think you’re reaching, bro,” Volcan replied.

“I still think it’s a mistake trusting that Kyle guy after he tried to nab Pavan - now you want to trust a hired gun?” Lighris asked, throwing out his left hand. “I may not be the most cautious of people but this is just illogical.”

“We can’t beat P.A.C.E by ourselves,” Volcan stated, speaking slowly and firmly as he met his brother’s gaze. “Assaulting their base ourselves without more help would get us all killed, and then the whole thing will mean nothing. They get new test subjects, dead or alive, and their terror continues. This is the only way, Lighris.”

The lightning phoenix clearly didn’t share the sentiment, but he offered no further protest. Only a skeptical, “I hope for all our sakes you’re right, little brother, or we’re fucked either way.”

Avory had already turned off from the conversation before the two argued and was checking out the landed vehicle filling the center of the room, tracing his fingers and claws over the ship’s skin; pressing his head against the surface and eyeballing it across its horizon. The metal exterior was a lightweight alloy - most likely a mix of aluminum and other elements, and despite the signs of damage all across the hull the metal retained a chrome sheen, almost like polished silver.

As he continued to examine the ship, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. “Boo,” a female voice said, making him jump.

“Shh-” the raven hissed briefly, going stiff in his movement after his sudden jump. He paused for a moment before standing upright and looking over at his scarer, coming face to face with a red dragoness with fin-like protrusions on the sides of her head. “Ayane, I assume?”

“That’d be me,” she replied, positively beaming as she studied his face. “And you’re Avogadro Lo’Raven, right? I’ve seen you in so many tech magazines!” She added in a chipper tone. “Your studies on Thorium were impressive, and I’d love to get a look at some of those synthetic fabrics I’ve been hearing about. Also, the operating systems you designed for Feathertech? Top notch - they never fail me.”

Avory blinked a couple of times, surprised by the contrasting welcomes between Ayane and Lighris. He then smiled, reaching out a hand to the dragoness, now feeling rather welcomed. “I’m glad to hear it. I get a lot of compliments, but it’s rare for anyone to mention my papers.”

“I’m not your typical consumer,” she said, shaking Avory's hand with one hand and wagging a finger on the other “So, I can definitely assume that’s your car outside?” She asked, pointing back toward the door. “What brings you out here?”

“Volcan told me that you guys managed to pull a couple of aircraft P.A.C.E were using out of the sky.” He said looking back at the craft beside them, “I assume this is one of them?”

“Yep. This is the undamaged one,” she said, gesturing at the craft. “But… Why are you interested? And, how do you know about-” Then, her face seemed to light up. “Wait… Volcan told me that the famous Lightnings came to help him and Lighris -OH MY GOD!” She suddenly blurted out, looking at Avory like a child meeting their favourite superhero. “You’re one of the Lightnings! I knew it!” She declared before pumping her fists in the air like someone who had just won the lottery.

“Shhh, calm down!” Avory chuckled at the excitement displayed by Ayane, “I seriously hope you didn’t actually know. That would be concerning”

“To me it was obvious! Who else could build such a sophisticated exo-suit? Such a project would cost millions!” She replied. “Also they look like big metal birds so it kinda fits. I admit though, I at first thought the CEO - your dad - was the one in the suit, until the other one came along, and you guys showed up in Hong Kong while he was at a press conference so it couldn’t be him,” She tilted her head at him. “So… Which are you, the blue or the red? Or are you the White Lightning who appeared first?”

“Wow… White Lightning… I’ve not used that suit for over a year now” he reminisced, before smirking at her, “So you clearly know which ones I am not?”

“I did a few analyses with each appearance,” she explained. “Though all the suits are very similar in overall size and shape, there are very subtle - very minute differences that the untrained eye would miss. I assume the suits use a frame that conforms to the wearer but maintains a standard assembly pattern on the exterior. Each of you moves differently too - Red Emperor carries themselves like someone constantly ready for fight, and the American Dream? Well I just got the sense he loved the attention more than what he was actually doing.”

“Yeah… The attention, money and control.” the Raven-hoopoe’s expression soured at the mention of the name. But it passed quickly, “He will be dealt with,” he reassured. “But as you might have heard over there, I was the guy who stopped him back on Liberty Island.”

“So you’re the Red Lightning then,” she said. “Well, we can talk more about that some other time - I can see it distresses you.” She added, resting her hand on his shoulder briefly. Then, she winced, and drew her hand back. Her fingers trembled, and she shook her hand like she was trying to shake off a bug. “Uh, sorry. Must’ve slept on it or something,” she said, smiling. 

“Oh? That can be uncomfortable, I know,” Avory agreed before looking at the ship again. “So… What do you make of it?” he asked before tapping the strange surface again, “Must of cost a fortune kitting this thing out.” he said confidently.

“Without a doubt,” said Ayane. “The hull is a strange hybrid of lightweight materials, mostly aluminium, coated in a refractive, synthetic material that, when introduced to an electrical charge, bends light around it and makes the thing completely transparent.” She pointed up at the rotors. “And these appear to be recessed into these fenestron rings to absorb sound going left to right - you wouldn’t hear this thing unless it was directly above you. All in all, the design is brilliant. Sadly it’s being used for something nefarious like kidnapping people.” She crossed her arms, her tail flicking behind her with visible annoyance. “Such a waste of such revolutionary engineering and technology.”

“Very much so,” Avory agreed as they paused for thought. After a moment of reflection he then spoke. “Silver. Coated in a silica glass, or fused quartz if you prefer, membrane that naturally reacts to the induced current and heats up rapidly compared to the air around it which generates a cold convectional current that effectively bends the light around it to any viewer at a… give it about… 10 metre distance if the membrane can generate a consistent 370 Kelvin difference.”

“Yeah… Yeah that sounds right,” she said, nodding. “How’d you get that just with a look? It took me hours to analyze the materials and, evidently, I still didn’t know them all.”

“I designed something similar before, but on a much smaller scale. It was more of a proof of concept at the time and that much silver is very very expensive. My father would be raising eyebrows if I ordered that much to the door.” he insisted. “I was planning on eventually outfitting the suits with it once I can get my hands on such a quantity. Oh, and the sheer amount of power you would have to draw to actually get it to work? That would be ridiculous for anything smaller than… well.. This!” he gestured to the ship. “This must have some serious power.”

“They’re powered by Hydrogen fuel cells,” she replied. “I managed to extract the one from the craft Volcan damaged, but because we took this one intact I left it inside.’ She pointed at the VTOL. “I’ve since analyzed the composition of the Hydrogen fuel and I know the chemical makeup to synthesize more. I’m still working on making the actual fuel synthesizer but so far it’s proven pretty tricky with what I have here.”

“Are you saying that they are using some sort of Hydrogen compound rather than just pure hydrogen?” Avory cocked his brow at the dragoness.

“Yep. They’ve reverted it to a liquid form and mixed it with additional compounds. The cells themselves are also heavily shielded,” she looked in Volcan’s direction, grinning. “Didn’t stop him from running to the hills the moment he heard the word ‘Hydrogen’ though.”

“Hindenburg!” Volcan reminded her, shouting from across the shop.

She then turned to the tarp. “But the real nightmare they brought, besides the Disruptors,” she said, as she grasped the tarp and pulled it off. “Was this thing.”

From below the tarp came an abomination of man and metal. What at first appeared to be human, after a quick study, was very clearly not, and the sight of it nearly made Avory jump back in fright at the thing. A pale, seemingly human creature, but absolutely giant in size, with half of its face covered in metal plating, metal goggles with dim red lenses, two thick, muscular arms ending in what seemed like medieval morningstars where hands should have been, and entirely mechanized legs from the waist down.

“Fuck… Didn’t want to see that face again,” Volcan remarked as he came over to join the two.

Avory walked over, pushing the sides of his walking coat back and sliding his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Phoenixes, magicians, weeaboo sword fighters… And now it turns out Frankenstein is still around.”

“Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster,” Ayane clarified.

“Yes, I know.” The raven remarked, “Hence why I said that ‘he’s still around’ as opposed to, ‘here he is.’”

“Oh. Fair enough then,” she agreed, nodding.

“I thought we blew this thing up?” Volcan asked.

“You did. The one you fought anyway,” replied Ayane. “This is the one that was on board the intact VTOL, the one we got at the rink.”

“But…” Volcan looked over the metal-clad behemoth. “It looks exactly like the one we destroyed… I’d swear even the face is the same.”

Ayane grimaced. “There’s… A reason for that,” she said. “You see, when I salvaged the parts of the destroyed one - ‘Cyber Soldiers’, Kyle calls them, I managed to get enough from the remains to run a tissue sample. Then, over the winter, I took a sample from the organic tissue on this one as well.” She looked at Volcan. “They were a one-hundred percent match when I analyzed them.”

“W-What?” Lighris piped up, hearing the conversation. “I thought no two people could have the exact same DNA? Not even identical twins.”

“Clones.” Avory pointed out, “So they are manufacturing these… monstrosities by growing clones and then augmenting them with these cybernetic enhancements …I wonder what the turnaround is for one, start to finish.”

“Fuck me…” Volcan muttered. “Is that even possible?”

“Think of Rikyuu,” Ayane stated, receiving a curious look from the raven-hoopoe though she didn’t notice and continued. “He was grown in a tube, not so different from this guy. Only he wasn’t turned into a demented cyborg after.”

Volcan lowered his gaze, seeming to have a thought. “Do you think Rex took this technology from his partnership with Rikyuu’s creator?”

“That’s distinctly possible, yes. Cloning would be the first step toward proper genetic engineering – Nero would definitely possess the knowledge to do that. If you can grow a whole person and then modify the strains, that’s when you get someone like Rikyuu. Otherwise, growing the same clone over and over again, so long as the base DNA is intact and pure, would be even easier.”

Volcan shuddered. “Disgusting… How could anyone grow a whole person just to turn them into this?” He gestured at the cyborg.

“You’ll be surprised how easy it is to do nowadays,” Avory interjected. “The only reason why you probably don’t hear about it is because of the ongoing ethical discussions behind it. One of the theoretical medical possibilities of cloning is creating a clone of yourself to basically harvest organs from. If you get shot in the heart? Well let’s take a replacement from your clone. You’ve smoked too much and need a new pair of lungs? Just take them from your clone. Is it ethical? Well… that’s the ongoing discussion.”

Volcan grunted, laying his hand over his stomach. “I think I’m gonna be sick,” he groaned, turning away from the cyborg. 

“No risk of that thing coming to life, is there?” Lighris asked cautiously.

“None. I removed its power source, including the backup, and central processor unit,” Ayane assured him. “This ‘borg is completely inert - nothing but the world’s biggest - and ugliest - paperweight.”

“I dunno, I’ve seen worse,” the raven commented, turning to Ayane, “Have you seen Sam White recently?”

“The American Dream? No, there’s been no appearance from him since your fight on Liberty Island,” she explained. “News said he’s comatose and has remained so ever since.”

“Exactly! World’s ugliest paperweight.”

“I get that you hate the guy but can you really compare him to this thing?” Ayane asked, jerking her thumb at the cyborg. “Thing gave me nightmares the first night I had it here.”

“You should meet the guy. I’ll give you his number later,” Avory turned his attention back to the monster before moving swiftly on, “So… what about this ‘Disruptor’ I keep hearing about giving you guys headaches?”

“Oh it does way more than that,” said Volcan, looking at Ayane. “Best we just show him.”

“Uh… You sure?” She asked, looking warily at Volcan.

Volcan nodded. “I can take it for a few seconds,” he assured her.

Ayane still looked uncertain, but she nodded and headed over to the VTOL while Avory watched. “Okay, watch me when she activates it,” Volcan said, standing patiently while Ayane disappeared into the cockpit of the craft.

Avory watched closely, looking between Ayanne and Volcan waiting for the demonstration. "Is this going to be focused or projected everywhere?" he asked.

“It’s radial, so it spreads outward, like a ripple,” replied Volcan. “Feeding more power into it, from what we’ve found out, increases its range but not its potency. Something I’m glad for as you’ll soon see.”

An electronic whirring filled the air as the VTOL powered on. Ayane called out from the cockpit, counting down from three. Avory felt a mild twinge of pain in his head but otherwise the effects of the Disruptor seemed to pass over him. However, he saw the effects immediately with Volcan. The phoenix lurched, his feathers losing some of their brightness as he leaned on a table for support, breathing heavily. He looked ill… 

In that same instant, Avory saw Lighris likewise shifting in his chair looking similarly ill as Volcan. He nearly fell out of his seat but grabbed the table beside him to keep himself up. The lightning phoenix was much further away than Volcan yet evidently felt the same effects. When Avory, out of reflex, tried to reach out to help Volcan, when his hands touched the phoenix’s feathers, he was shocked to find that they had become colder.

“Ok! Ok! Turn it off! Turn it off! I’ve seen enough!” Avory shouted out, wrapping an arm around Volcan’s back to stop him from collapsing onto the floor.

The VTOL began to power down, and Volcan breathed more easily, the bright colour of his feathers slowly returning and the heat increasing against Avory’s arm.

“Are you ok, mate? I’m not gonna lie, that looked pretty scary for a sec,” The raven asked, still holding onto him until the fire phoenix felt comfortable again.

“Yeah, I’m alright… I guess over the past few months, I became less accustomed to those effects,” he said, shaking his head and rubbing it to ease an apparent headache. “So, yeah… P.A.C.E uses that device, that ‘Disruptor’, to hunt people like us. While inside of its field, you saw it cuts us off completely from our powers, weakening us. While in it, I can’t conjure fire or even revert to my infrared vision, though my strength seems to be unaffected.”

Ayane came running out of the VTOL, walking over to Volcan, and noticing Lighris as well. “Oh shoot, I must have fed too much power into it. It wasn’t supposed to reach Lighris as well,” she said.

“Easy mistake,” Lighris called out in assurance, unhooking himself from the car batteries and standing up from his chair. He momentarily hobbled on his feet, but found his balance and walked over to join them. “Suffice it to say, we fucking hate those things.”

“Yeah, I can see they actually do give you a headache.” Avory commented, letting go of Volcan and rubbing his temple as he walked over to the aircraft again to try and find the device, “Seems like a more stable version of what I saw used on Tsumé.”

The others, however, shared a shocked look. As Avory approached the aircraft, Lighris rushed over to him, seizing his shoulder and turning him around. “Wait a minute!” He exclaimed, meeting Avory’s gaze. “You felt that?!” He demanded.

“Your ‘disruptor’?” Avory asked, confused, “Yeah, why? Doesn’t everyone?”

“Kyle told us that people without metagene, psionics or elemental powers shouldn’t feel anything,” Volcan replied.

“And he’s right,” Ayane added, shrugging. “I don’t feel any effects of the Disruptor at all.”

“Could it be that it does grow more potent with power then? Affecting regular people’s neurons too? It was only a slight headache, nothing out of the ordinary; like waiting up one morning after a couple of drinks” Avory suggested, before turning to Ayane. “Only reason why it wouldn’t affect you is because you were in the passenger seat?”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Ayane stated. “When they take captives the Disruptor stays on to keep them from using their powers in the cabin too. I was right there.” She stepped closer to Avory, studying him carefully. “Are you a metagene? Maybe Psionic?”

“I think Obsidian or Ordagova would’ve known if he was psionic,” Volcan offered.

Avory paused for a bit, looking between the three of them before speaking, “It might sound daft, but sometimes me and my sister believe we know what the other is thinking.”

“Isn’t that normal for twins?” Lighris asked, shrugging. “You came outta the same egg.”

“Well, there has always been a belief that twins can read each other’s minds, but there's been loads of scientific studies saying it’s rubbish, just happy coincidences.” he stated, “...Although, after these last couple of months, anything seems possible now.”

Volcan hummed in thought. “Well, isn’t that something? We’ll have to double-check on that…”

“But if you said that your friends would have known, then it must be nothing,” he downplayed himself, turning back to the craft. “So, about this device…”

“Right. I’ll show it to you,” said Ayane, walking back over the VTOL and climbing inside.

When Avory joined her, she led him to the back of the craft, removing a panel on the floor to reveal the device itself. “There it is,” she said, letting him see it. “I haven’t been able to figure out how to remove it without taking the-”

“Holy shit,” Avory interrupted gazing down at the ominous dark purple sphere below him with wide eyes and beak agape. “They really did it… they seriously did it…”

“Uh… Did what?” She asked, taken aback by his sudden shift in demeanor. 

“They’ve actually created spherum,” he commented, quickly getting onto his knees and then lying prone on the metal floor, leaning into the compartment inspecting it closely, “I thought it was only theoretical.”

“What’s spherum?” Ayane asked, not understanding. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s just the name I came up with for it. Because it’s only theoretically possible to create such a compound or alloy in a spherical shape due to having to keep it in absolute perfect balance… One small imperfection and it could never be created…” he explained as he started to move his hand, to reach out to touch it, “But here it is, right in front of me.”

“It’s a compound you say?” Ayane asked, putting her hand to her chin in thought. “Comprised of what?”

“M.A.N.A. Matter of Ancient Novel Asteroids.” Avory answered, dragging his finger across the hard surface of the orb, “Artifacts that fell to Earth millions of years ago possessing elemental powers with the same signatures as our Phoenician friends here… This sphere would have been carefully created by chemically fusing equal amounts of the stones of all 5 elements…”

“Fascinating,” said Ayane, considering the implications of Avory’s explanation. “If you by any chance have research notes regarding these ‘novel asteroids’, I’d love to see them sometime.”

“They are unpublished. It’s one of many things I would rather the world not know at this stage, but for our combined efforts to combat P.A.C.E? Sure thing,” he smiled back up at the dragoness before looking back down at the device, reaching for one of the bars encasing the orb in a cage.

“Careful. Volcan mangled his hand destroying one of these,” Ayane warned. “There’s a lot of circuitry in there.”

“You’ve powered this off, right?” the bird asked, looking back up at her again.

“I have, yes, but it’s not disconnected - there could be residual charge,” she replied. “I don’t fully understand how this thing works yet - I can’t even get it out of this craft. It's built right into it.”

“This is a platinum-tungsten cage around the spherum. It acts as an inverter which creates the dampening effect. Or ‘disrupting’ effect.” He explained, “The spherum is the combined result of all 5 elements; it’s capable of generating power naturally, but if power is provided to it, it resonates a power that amplifies the effects of mana. And of course, repeated when encased in an active inverting coil…” he looked back up at Ayane with a confident smile.

“...it inverts the amplifying effects to nullify it instead!” She completed for him. “Now it makes sense! Crap, why didn’t I think of that?”

From the door of the VTOL, Volcan and Lighris - hearing the ongoing conversation, glanced at each other. “Any idea what they’re talking about?” Volcan asked.

“I’m an automotive mechanic, not an engineer,” Lighris replied, shrugging. “This is beyond my scope of expertise.”

“Basically, this would normally make you stronger. But P.A.C.E made it do the opposite,” the raven looked over at the phoenixes by the door, shifting to stand up again.

“Oh. Well that, I can understand,” said Volcan.

“So that’s how they’re doing it… How could they have learned all of this?” Lighris asked.

“Remember when I mentioned that they likely learned to build this thing based on the knowledge they gained from studying Vinge’s father?” Ayane asked. “It’s possible… Probable, even, that when they identified the unique energy signature of his elemental powers, it helped them identify the novel asteroids Avogadro talked about. Once they were aware of the existence of one or two asteroid types, identifying the others became possible, allowing them to study them to make this compound Avogadro calls ‘Spherum’.”

“So it’s like the same elemental fusion that gave birth to Vinge’s entire species?” Volcan asked. “Only, all five elements instead of just two?”

“Well, you could think of it that way, yes,” Ayane offered. “Obviously there's no biology involved in this case but it would be a similar concept.”

“Shit, that stuff has to be grossly unstable,” Lighris put in warily. “Not all five of the elements can mix. Like mine and Volcan’s - that’s why we’re not hybrids even though we're brothers.”

“Well… You can mix them.” Avory announced. “Not sure what you guys would be… probably some sort of super heated plasma or something.” he paused, “but for them to have created this… they would have had to do a lot of experimentation, and had a lot of each element to find the perfect balance.” his expression then saddened, “...Unless they’ve stumbled on a massive deposit of the stuff, I can only assume where they’ve harvested it all from.”

“Could they be getting it from Achtbeinig?” Volcan asked. “Maybe he found it somewhere…”

“Possibly. When I apprehended him the first time, I found Elcrum in his lab. It was the first time I encountered it.” Avory confirmed, “but depending if my theory is correct, I might know how you could grow a seedy supply of the stuff.”

“...Do we want to know?” Volcan asked, not liking the sound of that. “Not ten minutes ago you guys talked about growing clones just to use them as organ farms.”

“I would need to take some blood samples from you guys… but you might have just hit the nail on the head.” Avory gave a grimacing look at the two phoenixes.

“We’ve gone from a sci-fi spectacle to sci-fi horror movie,” Lighris said, rubbing his eyes. “What the hell else can happen today?”

“And you jinxed it,” Volcan muttered, frowning.

Later, when the day was approaching the afternoon, the three avians said goodbye to Ayane who promised to meet them at Ordagova’s place later. They left the workshop, where Lighris saw the hot volcano-orange sports car. He let out a whistle and approached it, looking over the car with admiration.

“Hot damn!” He exclaimed. “A McLaren MP4-12C. Someone sure likes their exotic cars.” He remarked, looking back at Avory with a wry smirk. “Can I see under the hood? Well, so to speak.”

Avory chuckled, lifting his hands from his pockets to cross his arms, smirking. “You won’t see much, but sure”

With that, Lighris walked around to the back of the car, looking in through the window at the engine and studying it. “V8 3.8 with twin turbos,” he said, and looked at Avory. “7-speed dual clutch?” He asked.

The raven closed his eyes and nodded in response.

“Twin turbos - does that mean it’s fast?” Volcan asked.

“This thing will go from zero to a hundred in ten seconds flat,” Lighris replied. “Top speed, assuming there’s no restrictive governor in it, could hit more than three hundred kilometers an hour.”

“Three hundred?” Volcan asked, shocked. “Holy shit…”

“Not a bad way to spend three hundred thousand dollars, either,” Lighris added, looking at Avory with admiration. “Are you sure you can handle this much power?”

“He… Drove it pretty well on the way here,” Volcan remarked, turning his gaze away as he remembered the fright he received from Avory’s wild driving.

“Yeah, but this is just my day to day car. I’ve got a P1 in the garage. Now that would really arouse ya,” the raven teased.

“Hybrid? Pass,” said Lighris, shaking his head. “This one’s a beast but hybrids, in my experience, are gutless. Although, if you plan on driving in the winter, definitely do not use this one.” He pointed at the McLaren. “You’ll be spinning out in no time. You’ll want a four-by-four for the icy roads we get here, or at least something with rear or all wheel drive.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a Land Rover back home too. Don’t worry. Although I want to get rid of it.” he commented, walking around the car to the right side of the car.

“Oh, overseas, eh?” Lighris asked, walking around to the passenger side. 

“I’ll meet you guys back at Orda’s place,” Volcan called before he broke into a gentle run, spread his wings and flew into the air.

Waving to his brother, Lighris slid into the passenger seat, having to adjust it to accommodate his broad shoulders without bothering Avory.

“For someone not so tall, you are pretty broad,” Avory commented as he put his seatbelt on, “Are you sure you don’t want to get in my lap?”

Lighris shot him a dirty look. “Not unless you want me to drive,” he stated, putting on his own seatbelt before being driven away down the gravel track and back into the city.

During the flight back to Ordagova’s, Volcan stopped to land atop a building before taking out his phone and sending out a mass text to his friends, suggesting the meet at Ordagova’s that evening. He hesitantly also sent the same message to the number Korban had provided, hoping he’d be available for the meeting. It was about time they began discussing plans and making proper preparations for their assault the base of the P.A.C.E Directive. Which brought another thought to him.

“I should go get Kyle too,” he said to himself, pocketing his phone and taking flight again, but this time taking a new course.

When Korban heard his wrist terminal let out a chime, indicating he’d received a message, he lifted his arm and pulled up the message he had received. He narrowed his eyes as he read the message over quickly before smirking slightly and swiping the message away, hopping up from his seat.

“Finally growing a pair, are ya?” He muttered as he moved from the cabin of his RV to the main workshop behind it, where Kieran was browsing through one of his tomes, deciphering the runes within to understand the spell hidden behind them. “Pack it in and knuckle up, Kitty. Time to go to work.” He announced.

Kieran lifted his head from the book and looked at Korban. “You get that message you’ve been waiting for?” He asked as he closed the book and tucked it into his coat, then went and procured his sword and revolver.

“Yep. Big red’s calling a meeting and wants us to attend. Sumthin’ about discussing a plan of action against P.A.C.E,” Korban responded, grabbing his pistols and spinning them along his pointer fingers before holstering them, then snapping his fingers and summoning his sword from the rack next to him.

“Well, did you tell him you were on your way?” Kieran asked.

“Nah. I’d rather keep ‘em in suspense; make them think we bailed out, only to arrive at the last possible moment.” Korban answered with a smug grin. “Gotta keep it stylish and beautiful after all.”

“Of course…” Kieran rolled his eyes as he responded. “Just… do us both a favour and try not to antagonize everyone? Our alliance with them is already shaky enough as it is. It’s only cause that Volcan guy gave us a second chance that we’re being allowed to walk away with our memories, let alone our lives.”

Korban lost his smirk and sighed, looking off to the side. “I still think he’s being too trusting.” He commented in a more serious tone. “He put a lot of stock into the fact that we were duped, that we’d switch sides and fight with them instead of just bailing…”

“Well it paid off, didn’t it?” Kieran pointed out with a shrug. “Besides, you ever stop to consider that maybe the problem isn’t that Volcan’s too trusting, but that you don’t trust anyone?”

Korban shot Kieran a scowl. “Kitty, I’ve been in this business long before I decided to partner up with you. You weren’t there when I had my trust constantly shattered every chance some mother fucker decided to get too greedy or felt they were paid off by someone offering more than what the job offered.” He stated spitefully. “I told you, I don’t trust anyone as far as I can shoot ‘em, and I never miss my mark.”

“So then by that logic, you don’t even trust me?” Kieran asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Even after working together for a few years?”

“It pays to keep yer friends close, and yer enemies closer.” Korban responded. “One day you’ll thank me fer keeping you at arm’s length and no closer.”

“...That’s cold, boss.” Kieran muttered, flattening his ears slightly.

Korban rolled his eyes after a brief moment of silence, breaking the momentary tension. “Look, so far you haven’t done anything to make me think you’d turn on me, but you can’t blame me fer being so distrusting. Sure, those phoenixes made their point that they don’t gain anything out of backstabbing us, but until they can actively prove it, then I’m keeping the safeties off.”

He then lifted his arm and opened up a window on his terminal. “Fer now, let’s just focus on the moment.” He said as he pulled up a fast food menu from his browser. “I’m getting us some grub. You want the usual?”

“Yea, I guess.” Kieran answered, idly rubbing his stomach with his hand after hearing it growl slightly “Jeez, I didn’t realize how hungry I was while I was trying to decipher that spell.”

“Heh. Bookworm.” Korban remarked with a smirk as he placed their order.