A/N: I'm back! Hopefully my laptop's motherboard doesn't die again anytime soon. Had to spend a lotta moola to buy a replacement, have it shipped to my house, and hire the technician that fixed it.
At least none of my files were corrupted. But I digress.
Since May is over, I will also be returning to my old release schedule of at least three chapters a week. Next chapter should be out tomorrow.
Enjoy!
-x-
Leon and Lily flew side by side under the cloudy night sky.
Nyx had stayed behind. When Leon told her about the operation, she'd given him a long look, cawed once, and flown out the motel window toward the city lights. Apparently, freezing her feathers off on a foreign island ranked below a night of roaming Chicago.
He couldn't blame her. The situations he was getting into were becoming too dangerous for her. If he had a way to empower or evolve her like a pokemon, then she could keep joining, but he didn't get her hopes up.
The city sprawled beneath them like a circuit board, amber streetlights tracing the grid of streets and highways for miles in every direction. Wind ripped past Leon's ears and pressed his waistcoat flat against his chest, the white mask shielding his face from the worst of the chill.
Not that the cold bothered him. The resilience granted by all his rewards had made sure of that a long time ago. Firebending and its breathing techniques only bolstered his resistance to low temperatures even more.
Flying though? The power to fly was the greatest thing the gacha had ever given him, and it had given him a lot. There was something primal about cutting through open sky under your own power, with only energy and will holding you aloft. He didn't think he'd ever get tired of it.
Lily soared to his right in his full battle form, the Musica Sword strapped to his back. The exceed's Aera wings glowed a faint white against the darkness.
Leon glanced at him. This was the exceed's first time outside the Suite since being summoned. He'd spent over two weeks in a pocket dimension training a teenager how to fight, and the closest thing to fresh air he'd experienced was the cedar-tinged atmosphere of an interdimensional luxury apartment.
They flew in comfortable silence for a minute before Leon's curiosity got the better of him.
"Hey, Lily. I've been wanting to ask you something since you got here. Was the Fairy Tail guild really as chaotic as it seemed?"
Lily's tail flicked in the wind as he spoke, his words transmitted to his mind through their connection, unbothered by the strong winds.
(The guild was chaotic long before I joined. Master Makarov encouraged a culture of... spirited individuality. Brawls in the guild hall were a daily occurrence. Property damage was considered the norm, despite how desperately Master Makarov wished otherwise. I once watched Gajeel and Natsu destroy the second floor over a disagreement about whose cat was more useful.)
Leon stifled a laugh behind the mask. "Who won?"
(The building lost.)
"Of course, it did." Leon grinned as an important question came to him. "Okay, what about this? I have to know. Do Natsu and Lucy actually end up together? In my world, the story never gave a definitive answer. It was one of the most frustrating things about the series."
Lily's voice carried a note of amusement.
(Funnily enough, the rest of the guild had placed formal bets on the matter. The general consensus was that they were already together in every way that counted, and that Natsu was simply too dense to realize it required a verbal confirmation.)
Leon released a burst of laughter again. "That tracks."
They talked for another twenty minutes as the city thinned beneath them. The conversation tapered off as their destination approached.
"There", Leon said, angling his flight path downward and pointing at a specific building. "Land on that skyscraper."
The building was one of the taller ones in the northern stretch of the city, its rooftop clear of obstructions except for an HVAC unit and a communications array. Three figures stood near the center of the roof, visible against the faint glow of the city below.
Leon and Lily descended in a controlled glide, their Aera wings dissolving as their feet touched concrete.
The first of the three was a man, bald and broad-shouldered with a heavily muscular build. Beside him stood a woman who looked fresh out of a college campus, with short, silver-white hair and an athletic build. The third was an older, leaner woman, her grey hair styled in a messy ponytail and her eyes covered by thick glasses.
The man stepped forward first. He was of above average height, maybe five-eleven, and his face was weathered and lined, with a jaw that looked like it had been carved from stone. He wore tactical gear on top of a barely fitting green sweater and cargo pants, but not the over-kitted kind. Though the guns hanging off his holsters looked far from normal.
He glanced between Leon and Lily, his left brow rising slightly at the seven-foot cat.
"White Mask," he said. His voice was gravel soaked in whiskey. "I'm Brit. Cecil sent me."
"I figured. Told me you'd be waiting." Leon shook the offered hand. "I'm guessing he gave you a full dossier about me."
"He gave me enough." Brit nodded at the exceed. "And the cat would be Lily."
"Indeed, I am." Lily's deep voice carried easily across the rooftop as he and Brit shared a firm handshake.
The silver-haired woman stepped up beside Brit. Up close, the family resemblance was immediately noticeable. Where Brit was weathered and gravel-voiced, she looked young enough to be his granddaughter.
But unlike Brit, her attire was more in line with what he expected from superheroes working for the GDA. A yellow spandex with black accents hugged her curves and a fur-collared leather vest added some semblance of style. Around her waist was a green belt fitted with pouches.
"My sister, Britney," Brit said.
Leon waited for the punchline. It didn't come.
"…Oh. You're not kidding. Uh, pleasure to meet you, ma'am."
But in a world like Invincible's, stranger things existed. Maybe he could ask about it later.
Brit and Britney, though? Really? He wondered where their parents got their awful naming sense from.
"Pleasure's mine." Britney's grip was a touch stronger than her brother's, though he could tell she was holding back to not break his hand. She glanced at Lily and her lips curved. "And you. My brother said there'd be a huge cat. He undersold it."
"I am told that often," Lily replied.
"So, what's the arrangement?" Leon asked, looking between the siblings. "Cecil wasn't specific about the team structure."
"It's our operation," Brit said. "Britney and I run it while you follow our lead. Cecil wants the targets alive and the intel intact, and our job is to make sure both of those things happen."
Makes sense.
Cecil wasn't going to hand operational command to a teenage vigilante with barely a few days of field experience, no matter how useful his intel had been.
"Understood," Leon said.
Britney tilted her head at him. "No pushback? Plenty would argue."
"What? Why? Making me lead would be stupid. You want someone with only a few fights under his belt to be the leader? If you want to die so badly, just jump into a volcano."
A short exhale that might have been a laugh escaped Brit.
"Fair enough," Britney chuckled.
Just the four of them, though? Leon had expected more people.
"What do you guys have?" he asked. "Powers, I mean."
A faint smile crossed Brit's face. "I don't break."
That was either the most understated description of a superpower Leon had ever heard, or the most arrogant. Something about Brit's demeanor suggested it was neither.
The answer was obvious. He likely had a high level of invulnerability.
"Same here, just not as unbreakable. But I do hit harder than he does," Britney added, pointing a thumb at Brit.
"Eh… Debatable," Brit argued.
"Remind me. When was the last time you won in arm wrestling? Oh, right. Almost a hundred years ago."
Damn. They're old as fuck. Wait, does that mean they served in World War 2?
The woman who was probably the youngest among the three cleared her throat before the siblings could continue. She stepped forward with a bright smile and shook Leon's hand, her grip light and efficient.
"Ms. Popper. Transportation."
"With her teleportation, she's our way in and our way out," Brit said.
"Nice to meet you," Leon said, smiling under the mask.
Britney and Ms. Popper were also more evidence that this world deviated from canon. He'd never even seen or heard them mentioned before. He vaguely recalled Brit being one of the new characters that popped up during the Invincible War, but that was it.
"So..." He looked at Brit. "Cecil mentioned a briefing."
Brit reached into his jacket and pulled out a tablet. He tapped it twice and held it up, displaying a satellite image of a forested island surrounded by dark blue water.
"This is the private island in Norway we'll be going to. Purchased eighteen months ago through a chain of shell companies traced back to intermediaries connected to The Order. There's a central compound, two auxiliary buildings, and a dock on the southern shore, though we have reason to believe the real base is hidden underground."
He swiped to the next image, showing a thermal overlay. Leon counted the heat signatures.
"Current intelligence puts their external security at two dozen, give or take, split between Walking Dread's personal detail and Slaying Mantis' people. The Mantis' crew are the ones to watch out for. They're equipped with exosuits that grant enhanced strength, speed, and durability. Think low-tier superhuman across the board."
"How low-tier are we talking?" Leon asked, eyes narrowed in thought.
"Strong enough to flip a car with one hand. Fast enough to blitz past an Olympic athlete at full sprint. Tough enough to shrug off rifle fire if you don't aim for the gaps in their armor." Brit lowered the tablet. "Nothing that should give you trouble based on what Cecil's told me, but don't get cocky. Numbers and coordination have killed stronger people than you or me. Walking Dread's men are more conventional. They're essentially just mercenaries. Well-armed, well-trained, and baseline human. Expect assault rifles, snipers, and body armor."
"Anything else I should know?"
"Don't level the compound before we've had a chance to search it. If The Order is using this island for meetings, there's likely intelligence stored on-site. Documents, communications equipment, server hardware, the works. We want those intact."
"Got it. Keep the intel intact and try not to flatten the building."
Leon tilted his head. That sounded easy enough. And based on the files Cecil sent him, the Walking Dread was the only one that could threaten him or Lily. Slaying Mantis was more or less just a normal guy in a suit.
"Do we know about why they're meeting?"
"Our intel suggests The Order is restructuring their supply chain for something called Project Genesis. Should sound familiar to you."
"You have no idea," Leon muttered, reminded of horrible memories.
"Cecil also gave the authorization to tell you who our source of info is. He made a deal with the new leader that replaced Machine Head. Someone who goes by the alias 'Titan'."
That was news to Leon. But it was also a relief. That was one good thing that didn't change despite his interference.
If Titan really had replaced Machine Head with Cecil secretly backing him or making a deal with him, the chances of him going along with The Order's plans to continue Project Genesis were low. Though how Cecil planned on making sure The Order didn't find out about him and Titan's negotiations was lost on him.
"According to Titan, Machine Head's arrest created a bottleneck in their pipeline," Brit continued. "They're meeting to discuss alternative sourcing. Walking Dread's Eastern European networks are the likely replacement for whatever Machine Head was providing domestically."
Leon's jaw clenched behind the mask. "Alternative sourcing? That's a polite way of saying they're looking for new places to kidnap children."
Brit held his gaze for a moment and gave a short nod.
"That's why we're here." He reached into a pouch. "Before I forget. Put this around your ear. We know you have a way to communicate with Lily, so you'll have to be the one to relay information to and from him."
Leon took a look at the earpiece Brit handed to him. It felt sturdy and slightly flexible. He put it on.
"Try it out," Brit said. "Press on your earlobe and talk."
Doing as Brit instructed, he pressed his earlobe.
"Testing. Testing."
Brit lifted a hand to his ear. "I hear you loud and clear. Is it fine on your end?"
Leon nodded. "All good."
Britney tapped her own earpiece. "And me?"
"Loud and clear," Leon raised a brow, impressed with the clarity. "This is some neat tech."
"Perks of being a GDA agent." Brit turned to Ms. Popper. "We're ready."
Ms. Popper stepped closer to them, her expression unchanged. Leon sensed space warp and before he knew it, the temperature dropped by several degrees and they were now standing in a dark forest.
But Ms. Popper wasn't with them.
"Where'd she go?" Leon whispered as he and Lily took in the surroundings.
Far past the trees, he spotted a brightly lit compound.
"Ms. Popper teleported us to the island, but she's not joining," Brit said, his voice dropping. "She stays off-site until we signal for extraction. No point risking our only ride home."
He crouched and motioned the others in. Britney took a knee beside him. Lily lowered himself on Leon's side, his ears swivelled toward the distant compound.
"Here's how this goes," Brit said. "Our thermal scans are a few hours old, so assume the patrols have shifted. One of you take out the sniper on the central compound's roof. After that's done, Britney and I take the western approach and draw the perimeter in, followed by you coming in through the east and cutting off the other side of the compound before the targets notice the commotion. We work inward until we have the targets. Questions?"
Leon raised a hand slightly. "One. Before we commit to that, I just want you to know I can tell you exactly where every person on this island is right now."
Brit's eyes narrowed a fraction. He glanced at Britney. She glanced back. Something passed between them, like a whole conversation compressed into a half-second of eye contact.
Brit turned back to Leon. "Go ahead."
Leon knelt, pulled off one glove, and pressed his bare palm flat against the cold soil. He closed his eyes.
A map of the island and everything on it formed in his mind.
"Twenty-six hostiles above ground," Leon said, eyes still closed. "Eight seem to be on perimeter patrol, moving in pairs. One is in each of the four stationary posts at the corners of the compound. I also count two snipers. One is on the main building's roof. The other is in a treestand about a hundred and fifty feet northeast of us. We're outside his sight line."
"Inside the main building, there are nine on the ground floor. Six of them are wearing exosuits. Three more are upstairs. Two are seated while one is standing by the door. The standing one is suited, too." Leon tilted his head, focusing and spotting two distinct figures. "And you were right about the underground level. There's a hollow space beneath the compound, bigger than the buildings above it. The Walking Dread and Slaying Mantis are in a room together. No one else is there."
He opened his eyes. Brit and Britney were staring at him.
"Huh… How the hell did you do that?" Britney asked.
Leon shrugged. "The ground talks. I listen."
She stayed silent, seemingly waiting for more. He didn't budge. A magician never revealed his tricks, especially to agents he'd just met fifteen minutes ago and knew little about. They may be Cecil's people, but he'd rather have as many cards hidden in his sleeve as possible.
Britney looked at Lily, but the exceed only shrugged.
Brit rubbed his jaw, his gaze moving from Leon to the compound and back. Whatever he was thinking, his face gave away none of it. After a few seconds, he shrugged.
"Cecil's file said you might have tricks," he muttered. "All right, new plan. The snipers and elevated positions are the biggest threat here. You two can fly, so they're yours. Take them out first. Quiet if you can manage it, loud if you can't. Either way, make it quick."
He turned the hand toward himself and his sister.
"Britney and I will walk in through the front door and pull the ground forces onto us. Every gun pointed our way is a gun pointed at the two people here who don't care about getting shot."
Leon decided not to share his and Lily's own means of bulletproof durability.
Brit glanced at Britney. "How long since we ran a loud entrance?"
"Madrid. One year ago." She smiled. "You got blown through a cathedral wall."
"And I walked out of the rubble with shredded underwear." Brit shared the smile and turned back to Leon. "Once the outside's clear, the upper floor is yours. We'll sweep the ground floor and hit the basement together. If you're unsure about something, don't be afraid of asking me. Any questions?"
Lily spoke for the first time since landing on the island. "The treestand sniper should be the first to go. They're most likely to alert the others of your approach."
"Agreed. Either of you can take him." Brit rose from his crouch and rolled his shoulders until his neck cracked. He drew one of the strange-looking guns from his holster and checked the chamber. "We move in one minute. Wait for my signal before you launch."
Britney cracked her knuckles, a grin spreading across her face as they trekked closer to the compound.
Leon pulled his glove back on. Beside him, Lily reached over his shoulder and loosened the Musica Sword in its sheath.
"The rooftop sniper is yours," Leon said, doing a quick stretch. "The treestand one is mine. After that, we try to sweep the corner posts while the ones on the ground are distracted."
"Understood."
Aera wings bloomed from Lily's back as Brit raised his hand. The wind moved through the canopy, the compound lights flickered between the branches, and twenty-six people on the island carried on, unaware.
Brit's hand dropped.
Lily shot into the sky. Leon disappeared into the ground.