“What was that?” Pearl asks, eyeing Nahnco's watch. It beeped at him until he tapped it.

  “That would be my bad guy alert.” He retorts.

  Sapphyra squints at him, smirking a bit. “Oh, so you're Batman now?”

  “Nah, I'm too poor for that. What I mean is that I have cameras around my shop and throughout the city. Whenever a crime happehem, they alert me. Sometimes I help, most times I 't.” Nahnoves towards the back of the bar, girls close behind him.

  “So we're not gonna talk about how illegal it is to have surveilnce up like that? How does tech even wht now?”

  “Girl, the world's turned upside down. How bout we fix it and then worry about Big Brother over here.” Pearl raises a brow, the er of her lips turning upwards.

  Sapphyra sighs. Pearl had a bad habit of fog on things that be her, not others. But this might be the oime she had a point.

  “Okay. Tell me what to do.” Sapphyra says, turning to Nahnco.

  He pulls up a hologram by the bar, typing away at hat float above it, attached to nothing. It’s a neon red map of the radius around the tavern up to about 10 blocks away. Vibrating White dots appeared over several of the houses on s.

  “What are those dots?” Sapphyra asks, squinting at the s. Her eyes were having trouble making everything out.

  “Each of these dots represents a disturbance or crime of some kind. Violent crimes make them vibrate…don’t ask me why that’s a feature,” he quickly added.

  “Didn’t yram this thing?!” the girls excimed in unison.

  “Look, do you want to grill me o save some people a some training in?!” He snaps back.

  Sapphyra rolls her eyes but heads towards the door in a rush. Pearl reaches out a hand to stop her, but it’s too te. She’s already out the door and leaping into the air, flying away.

  “She’s got to stop leaving me behind.” Pearl mutters, hands balled into fists at her side.

  “Or, and hear me out here, you could go join her whether or not she likes it.” Nahnco offers, still examining the s.

  “What? But you heard her. She doesn’t want to see me get hurt.” Pearl frowns, the strength leaving her hands.

  “And? You’re both adults. How long are you gon someone else dictate your decisions in life? I mean, it’s not like you two are a couple, right?” He looks up from his s, peering at Pearl with a judgemental brow raised.

  Of course, he had t up Pearl's ued crush. Did everyone in the world know?

  She could feel it, that little tug in the back of her mind that says to answer his challenge. But Pearl wao respect Sapphyra’s wishes.

  Raising both hands, Pearl smacks her cheeks to pull herself back from her owal trap.

  “Alright. I’m gonna go out and help. If it looks th, I’ll head back, I swear.” Her promise was met with a genuine smile from Nahnco. He watches her run out into the street, having grabbed a pool stick for prote.

  “This should be fu’s see how long the kid go before she makes a ant with the human.” He mutters as his eyes go back to the s.

  Pearl runs off in the dire Sapphyra takes, lungs pumping, chest and legs ag with exertion. The former petitive swimmer hadn’t hit the gym in a long time and it showed. Still, that wouldn’t slow her down. She had to prove herself to Sapph.

  Something heavy shatters near her, making her jump back, pool stick raised up like a baseball pyer ready to swing. She looks dowhat it's a gss table that’s shattered and sighs. A soft cry from up above broke her tration.

  She saw a child on the sed floor. They were getting dragged away by a gruesome e creature with a distended belly, three s and a single braid ing out of the nape of its fat neck. She couldn’t make out the details of the child, but she had to do something.

  A fire escape staircase nearby. Pearl didn’t think, she just ran up the steps and stopped in front of the gaping hole of the apartment. The creature had its back to her as it raised the child above its open mouth.

  “Put the kid down, ugly!” She yelled, instantly filled with regret as it turs sights on her.

  It tosses the child to the side and lumbers towards her. A zy predatrin spreads across its face, showing all of its yellow teeth.

  “Daddy!” the child whimpers, trying to grab onto the beast's massive leg. It kicks the child off, sending them into a wall.

  “Daddy?” Pearl blinks slowly as a realization es to her. The mist…it must have mutated the child's father into this thing.

  “Shit.” Pearl sighs and slowly backs out the hole in the wall, gng down at the street below.

  What was she thinking, seriously? She ’t fight this thing. She’s got no bat skills, and that kid is right there. What's it gonna look like if she gets lucky and murders it? Yes, it’s a monster, but that kid still calls it dad.

  Pearl knows what it’s like to lose your parents. To have someone else take them from you. The st thing she wanted was to give that same feeling to this kid.

  Sapphyra was right to freak out. This is not a game to py. These are people’s lives.

  Pearl leads the creature down the fire escape, the metal groah its massive weight. If she just get it away from the kid, then maybe they be safe. She’s faster than it and adrenaline is fuelio keep going. Everything should be fine.

  She made it to the bottom of the fire escape. She was in the clear!

  At least she would have been, had she not tripped.

  A string of expletives escaped her mouth as she hit her knee and fell onto her fabsp;

  Pearl felt the earth shake near her. It was right over top of her. She scrambles backwards on her elbows and balls of her feet, desperate. Her eyes darted bad forth, searg for the pool stick. It's behind the beast, right between its portly kles!

  “Daddy no! Stop it!” The child called down as they raced towards the se. Only now could Pearl make out softer feminiures on the child along with extended Elven ears.

  “Stay back, kid!” Pearl's stomach drops as the beast turns its attention ba the child. It takes oep towards the child, a deep sinister ugh esg it.

  The pool stick was in the clear. Diving forward, Pearl grabs it and wi the pain in her k stung worse than a torn ACL, yet she pushes through the pain.

  She grabs the pool stick, biting her bottom lip hard enough it bleeds, choking back her whimpers. Great, she had it, but what to do with it? That thing did not look like a bruise on the back of the head would stop it. Pearl noticed the clothing it wore or ck thereof: a single loincloth. Its gross pimply backside was fully exposed. She grimaces, looking from the stick to the creature and back.

  May the lord five me for this crime. She thinks to herself as she stands up, gripping the stick with both hands, steadying her hands. A sieardrop of determination rolls down her cheek as she lines up her shot, aiming at the creature's massive backside.

  The little girl reaches her hands out to her father-turned monster, unaware or unwilling to believe it would hurt her.

  With an Amazoness cry and a hip-thrust of all that she could give, Pearl rams the pool stito the creature's exposed anus so deep it breaks off in her hands. Only a small piece was left in her hands. She could still feel the vibration of the snap in her wrists.

  A deyed rea from the creature. It stops, drops and wails in pain louder than a wolf howling at the moon as it rolls around, hands c its cheeks. It feels the pain, doesn’t know what caused it or how to fix it.

  Pearl almost felt sorry for it, almost.

  The child wipes a few tears from her face as she watches her father roll around in pain.

  Pearl couldn’t believe she did that, let alohat it worked.

  Gasping for air, she throws the nub of wood away. While her oppo was heavily distracted, she moved towards the child.

  “Are you alright? What’s your name?” She gently asks, bending over to be eye-level with her.

  “I’m April. N-no I’m not alright. That’s my daddy…why is he like this?” Up close, even at this time of night and with the mist hanging around them, Pearl could see the girl had no irises. They were rge and pitch bck.

  “Listen, I wish I could expihing to where it would make sense, but all I tell you is that this mist in the air? It’s ging people. You haven't always had pointy ears, have you?”

  April shakes her head no. “It ged me too?”

  “Yeah. It might be hard to uand, but your dad, he’s not thinking like himself anymore. As far as my friends and I know, there is nothi of him at all in there.” Pearl swallows as she watches April frown.

  Her heart ached for the girl but the st thing she would do is lie to her.

  “The dy in the sky…is this what she was talking about? People losing themselves?” April asked.

  Pearl nods, eyes dartiween the girl and her monstrous father, still h in pain nearby. Blood had pooled underh him by this point.

  “So we fix him, then? you and your friends find the bad guys ahe queen-dy to fix it? That’s what she said, right?”

  April had hope, a very dangerous thing.

  Pearl closes her eyes and breathes out, slowly. That was a plex answer–no, it wasn't. Yes, they could find the criminals the queen wanted. Knowing Sapphyra and her parents, Pearl wouldn’t hand them over even if the world was burning, at least not before they tried to fix what her parents had started.

  “We try.” An ho answer. “In the meantime, I should get you out of here and somewhere safe.” Pearl looked down at her knee, notig the ugly bruise and cut grow before her eyes. The adrenaline held her together with bobby pins and duct tape. There was no way she’d be able to move with April like this.

  That's when she heard the sounds of fpping wings overhead. Sapphyra nds on the grouo Pearl, bloodied and wheezing. She had a gash on her abdomen that showed all the way to her rib cage. Notig Pearl staring in abject horror at her wound, Sapphyra covered it and looked around.

  The dragon thumbed over her shoulder at the g creature on the ground, now on its belly, exposing Pearl's sin. “Did you shove a stick up that thing's ass?”

  Pearl quickly covers April's ears. “Language!”

  “That’s not a yes or a no! Pearl, what the hell are you doing out here?” Sapphyra was exhausted.

  “I did something about it, yeah. And don’t talk about me, we o talk about that ribcage that’s exposed to the world! Where did that e from, ma'am, hm?” Pearl snaps back.

  Sapphyras mouth sches up. She opens her mouth and then closes it again as she looks over Pearl's shoulder. Wing, she spreads her wings.

  “I got it in a fight. A fight I did not win,” Sapphyra says, stepping in front of Pearl and April.

  “Don’t tell me whatever you fought followed you here?” Pearl asked, already knowing the answer. A silhouette nearby of a curvy woman made her take a pause. That’s when she heard the hissing.

  “Dragoness.Our date isn’t finished yet.” The woman came into view, vivacious and curvy in all the right pces…up top. Her lower half was that of a rge fat snake. A hiss escaped her mouth, followed by a forked tongue flig in Sapphyra's dire. Blood dripped from her cws as she slithered towards the girls.

  “Shit. I’ll hold her off-”

  “No.” Pearl stops her. Reag into her pockets, she pulls out her hairpin.

  “Pearl-” Sapphyra starts, but she doesn't have time to finish. The snake-hybrid woman's neck extends out and her jaw elongates as she reaches forward to take a bite out of Sapphyra’s throat. Sapphyra ducks, catg the snake-woman by the throat, but her grip slips. Sapphyras arm drops to her side, the skin of her palm crag.

  “Sapphy? Your arm!” Pearl points out, eyes widening in arm as she watches her best frie hurt.

  “Yeah. That’s why I’m having a problem. Her skin is acidid I’m pretty sure her bite has venom. I’m feeling tired, so fug tired, Pearl.” Pearl could hear it in her voice.

  How she wished they could go back to the clubhouse and just erase this entire disaster.

  She swayed on her feet, the wound below her breast dripping blood on the cobblestone roads below. Shaking her head, she pulls up what little strength she has left and takes a southpaw stance.

  “Go. I got this.” She smiles through bloodied teeth. Sapphyra would rather die on her feet proteg the very brave woman she loves than spe few moments arguing.

  Pearl covers April's ears. “You stubborn asshole! I’m not going anywhere” Unc April's ears, Pearl shoos her towards a trash made of bricks. “Go hide, okay, sweetie?”

  “Will you be okay?” April asks in a tiny voice full of fear as she moves. The question lights a fire underh Pearl.

  “Probably not.” Sapphyra answers dryly under her breath, dodging another extended bite attack from the snake-woman.

  “Yeah. We’re probably both dead.” Pearl smiles at Sapphyra as their eyes meet.

  They nod at each other, an unspoken moment that meant everything. “My parents always said we’re here food time, not a long time.” Pearl mutters, hands shaking as she watches Sapphyra drop to one knee. Her crows paler by the sed.

  She's losing so much blood. How much has she lost already?

  A bite gets through, ripping a k out of Sapphyra’s shoulder. She screams in pain but grabs the lower jaw of the snake-woman. Her oppo cmps down on her hand, ripping out a few fingers of Sapphyras hand. Blood sptters all over her and Pearl's clothing.

  “Stop it.” Pearl croaks out, croug in a daze. Sapphyra's blood travels down to Pearl's open wound on her knee. An unknown warmth spreads through her.

  “Sorry, Pearl.” Sapphyra’s tears blend with the dirt and blood on her face. “I guess I’m still that fuckup who found you in the rain.” Sapphyra coughs up blood,falling on her knees. Her wings cover Pearl, while she draws what little breath she has left.

  Her dragoness hero colpses.

  “Stop It!” Pearl yells, finding her voice. Pain be damned, she stands. “Stop hurting my Sapphyra!”

  The sound of thunder and a crackle of lightning overhead reminds her of a particur day. The day she's wao move past for years but couldn't.

  Rain falls, softly at first, blending with Pearl's tears. These weren't tears of sadness, not anymore. Now they were tears e and the angrier she got the harder the rain fell.

  Pearl has always followed everyone else's dreams and goals. She never even wao swim, she was just great at it but Sapphyra, the hobbies club–they're the only ohat let her be herself.

  Sapphyra has always had her baatter how bad it gets. And Pearl? She's always watched her be the hero.

  Pearl is dog.

  {ant Formed}

  A bright blue light engulfs Pearl, blinding the snake-woman and pausing her advances. In an instant Pearl is naked in the rain, her only desire is to protect the woman she loves. The rain stops, drops hang in mid air, suspended in time. All at once every single drop flies towards Pearl's body, f a yer of blue and bck scales. The water wants to drowo slow her down but she swims through it. Her arms and legs break through the watery co, her fad torso , plete with a brand new outfit. Like Sapphyra's,she wore a bber jacket-hoodie with blue uones, and bck scaled leggings. Hers was more lithe, the tank top was so skin tight it felt like her swimsuit.

  The light vanishes. Ahe snake-woman looks around for Pearl but all she sees is Sapphyra unscious on the ground. She slithers one inch towards her when a cut appears on her face.

  She hisses in pain, unaware anything has even cut her until now.

  Frantic, she searches until her eyes finally settle on Pearl, sitting on a rooftop.

  “Huma!” The snake-woman hisses.

  Pearl holds up a hand, stopping the rain.She flexes her hand down, direg every drop to aself towards the object of her burning hatred.

  Closing her first, the rain drops collided using the snake woman, moving at a speed so fast it was invisible to the naked eye. They went through the snake-woman, turning her into a leathery, bloodied, swiss cheese pile of flesh.

  As she looked up at the sky, she could swear she saw the same clouds tonight that were up in the sky when her parents were murdered.

  If only they could be here to see how amazing she could be.

  A guttural scream ripped through her once she id eyes on Sapphyra agaieleports o Sapphyra, moving through the rain with a thought. Getting on her knees, she starts g over Sapphs body.

  “Please…please get up!”