The elevator dinged as it came to a stop. I stepped out of it, making my way down the corridor to the main work area.

Spencer sat at his desk, his large body illuminated by his laptop screen, his hair disheveled, his shirt crumpled. He was passed out, snoring lightly.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, gently nudging him on the shoulder.

He jolted upright, eyes snapping wide. "I'm awake!" he exclaimed, before looking around.

I chuckled. "It's me. What are you doing?"

"Nothing, just..." He yawned and stretched his arms. "Just working. What's up, Ikki?"

"Are you eating properly?"

"I had a banana."

"Is that all you've had today?"

"I've been busy. You know, the Chaos Event."

"I get that. Still though, it's 3:00 PM. Have you had lunch?"

"Does the banana count?"

"No, of course not."

He let out an exaggerated sigh, and gave me a weary, defeated look.

I smiled, lifting up a tupperware container. "Come on. Let's get some real food in you. I made some extra stir fry for lunch, and I brought some down to share."

Spencer frowned. He glanced at the container and licked his lips, a gleam in his eye. Then, his stomach growled, and I grinned at him.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Oh fuck off."

I chuckled and handed him a pair of chopsticks.

"Thank you."

We sat down, and I set the container of food down in front of him. I'd made a bit more than I'd anticipated, so I'd packed some of it away. It'd been my intention to share it with Spencer anyways after Rai-chan told me he was passed out down here.

"Watcha working on?" I asked.

"Just a project," Spencer mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"A school project?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

"Nah, this is something I picked up recently," he replied. "My dad actually leads a division over at Sisyphus. He gave me something to work on after the freaky anomaly popped up this week over at the Lenapehoking chaos event. Something about domestic terrorism. We've got a lot on our plates, so this is the best way for me to help."

"Oh, okay," I replied, nodding.

I paused for a second, thinking back to my trek through the Coalition outpost in the proxy drone.

"When I got into the Draupnir unit, it said something about executing a Williams Protocol. Is that named after your old man?"

"Yep," he answered. "Dad came up with a lot of the systems we have today for responding to Chaos events. Most of them have been tweaked or expanded since then, but he was responsible for a lot of the foundational systems."

"Wow," I said. "Your dad must be a big deal around here then."

"I try to stay on the low about it," Spencer said, taking a sip from a cup of coffee on his desk. "Only Ena and a couple of others know enough about the world's premier magitech research institutions and companies to know him. I try not to flaunt it, though. I don't wanna look like a spoiled brat or anything, and I don't wanna get lumped into some stupid stereotype or have his shadow loom over me or anything. Besides, it's not like he's the only bigshot with kids in our cohort, you know?"

"Makes sense. But, still though, he must be a pretty impressive guy."

Spencer nodded.

"He is, but he's just my father," Spencer said with a shrug. "He's just... Dad, you know?"

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "I get that sentiment."

My own father wasn't anything like Spencer's dad, but I still knew how that felt. I was my own person. I didn't want to live in his shadow, and he didn't want to force me to. He was just a simple mechanic in the world I grew up in, but he was a natural leader and far wiser than his gruff demeanor let on. 'Zane' always developed a reputation as a reliable and useful man wherever he worked, and he'd raised both me and Izumi to the best of his abilities.

He'd done the best job he could.

Spencer set the tupperware down, having polished it off quickly. "Thanks for that, man," he said, letting out a burp.

"No worries."

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, of course."

He glanced down at his feet.

"It's not really anything important. I was just thinking about it. You said that back on your homeworld, the Earth, that you're kind of a nobody."

"Yep, and?"

"You said that the whole world was a wreck."

"Yeah."

"How do you deal with it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how can you just live in that world knowing everything around you is so messed up?"

"Good question," I said with a small chuckle. I rubbed the back of my head, trying to come up with an answer that wasn't just a bunch of empty words. "Well, I think a big part is that you just... do. You can't let it weigh you down. It's like... you can't change the past. But the future is uncertain. Still there to be determined. So you have to make the best of what you can do right now, in this moment."

Spencer frowned, stroking his chin. "I see. So you don't think that the way things are now is the way things will always be?"

"I think it's more complicated than that," I said, looking down. I was quiet for a moment, thinking about what he'd said, before I continued.

"I came here hoping to do well in school, find some success, get my little sister and my dad out of the shithole we set ourselves up in on the other side. But Izumi... my sister has different ideas."

I smiled sadly.

"She wants to stay behind and fight," I said. "She's a real go-getter, and she wants to do what we can to make things better back on Earth. I think... if someone like her can do something to improve things back home, that means I should be able to, too. But I still feel like she shouldn't have to grow up worrying about food and a country that's barely holding itself together."

Spencer frowned and nodded slowly. I looked out the window. The village beyond was alive, the sun was shining brightly. People were walking around, chatting, living their lives.

The weather was cool, and the sky was clear, with a few clouds drifting along. A peaceful moment. I couldn't imagine a place like this back on my home world. This city was a far cry from the places where I'd lived. This was a city of the world of the future, with magic, technology, and a society that had managed to hold itself together despite everything. I couldn't imagine a place like this back on my Earth, where every city seemed to be falling apart.

"It's not an easy thing to live with," I said. "We were just a bunch of kids growing up in the ruins of an old city. A grand city, that was arguably the birthplace of the United States of America, once upon a time. It's just a shell of its former self, now."

"Damn, I can't imagine," he muttered. He looked up at me. "Do you think you'd drag your sister over by her hair to get her out of there if it was a choice between living in squalor and risking your lives or getting to safety?"

"I... I honestly don't think I could do that to her," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, I'm the older brother, so I have a responsibility to look out for her. But she's growing into her own person, and she's got the right to make decisions for herself. Even if they are stupid or risky, or I don't agree with them."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it's tough, though, isn't it?"

Spencer looked away. He had a thoughtful look in his eyes, and he was frowning. "I wonder what it's like, having a family like that. It seems so different, you know? It seems... simpler, somehow. Easier. But, at the same time, harder. More difficult to do the right thing."

"Spencer," I asked. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?"

He let out a long sigh, and ran his hands through his short hair.

"Yeah, it's nothing," he said. "I was just thinking."

"About?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

He shrugged. "I dunno. Life. Family. Stuff like that. My dad was actually in Fort Hiawatha when we sent you down here in that drone. When it was overrun. Funny how fate goes sometimes, isn't it?"

"Your dad's okay though, right?" I asked.

"He is," Spencer nodded. "I just worry sometimes. Especially with everything going on recently. The Chaos event in the Lenahope Territories, and then the terrorist attack on the city..."

"I get that."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"It just got me thinking, you know? You could argue my dad is a hero. He was a nominee for our version of the Nobel Peace Prize once, a few years ago."

"Whoa, that's cool. What'd he do?"

"He headed a project that helped bring relief to a lot of poverty-stricken areas. They developed some sort of system that used fifth generation nuclear power tech from Earth integrated with mana crystals to accelerate plant growth in barren soil, so they could bring food to a lot of hungry people. The project didn't take off like they hoped it would due to the complexity of the systems, and he lost out to someone else in the end, but still."

"Still, that's cool. I can understand why you look up to him."

"Yeah. But he's always busy, and I can't really reach him most of the time, even though we're family. And, I well, I was wondering if you'd be in his situation, and you had to make that call, whether or not you'd choose your family first or the world."

I shook my head. "That's a bit of a hard call, but... I'd probably pick family, if it came to that."

"Even if it meant thousands, if not millions are counting on you to do something?"

"I... yeah, if it came down to that, I guess. I'd hope I wouldn't ever be in a situation where that was a choice that was available. But I'd do everything I could to find a way around that."

Spencer nodded. "Makes sense. But what if you were a leader or someone in power, and you were making that choice?"

"That's a lot harder. But I don't think it'd change much, to be honest. If anything, I'd do whatever I could to not be in that situation in the first place."

"Fair. I get that, too," he replied. He sighed. "But I feel like I'm missing something. I dunno, I've just been thinking about this stuff lately."

"About?"

"My dad, and my mom. My dad's a great man, but he's a bit of a workaholic. He was too busy saving the world. My mom is the one that mostly stayed at home and raised me, but she's also a Commodore in charge of one of the Coalition's dreadnoughts, and that's not a small job."

"Are you worried they're in danger?"

He shook his head.

"I'm not, really. But, it's just something that I've been thinking about. It's just that... what if I was in a position to save people like they were in the future?"

I nodded. I understood the question, but I couldn't imagine being in that position. It was a hard call. I'd never be able to make it.

Spencer took a breath, his expression hardening. "I'd like to say that I would choose to do what was right. To help people in need. But, at the same time, I don't think I'd be able to. I mean, what kind of a son or daughter would choose the lives of strangers over the safety of their parents?"

"That's a tough question, Spencer."

"Yeah, it is. But that's why I'm here. Because I don't think I'd have the courage to make that kind of call." He smiled sadly. "If I knew he was down there ahead of time, would it have affected the impromptu field mission we had you on the other day? Would I have been less cautious, maybe made some bad decisions to try to protect him?"

"You can't say for sure, Spencer. But that's okay."

"Yeah. I guess it is." He shrugged. "Sorry for getting all philosophical on you, by the way."

"Hey, that's what friends are for. Besides, it's good to have someone to talk to, right?"

He grinned and gave me a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Thanks."

I grinned at him. I understood his worries, and I could sympathize. My own life had probably been a lot more chaotic than his in the grand scheme of things, and I'd seen my own share of ups and downs. I'd been a victim of my circumstances a lot of times, but I'd never had to make any calls like the one he'd described.

"So, what's this big project your dad had you on?" I asked, changing the subject.

Spencer pointed his hand at a hood across the room. It had a bunch of tools scattered on it, and what looked like a humanoid torso chassis.

No way...

"Hey," I said. "Isn't that a draupnir unit?"

"Sure is. Not quite the same one you were in a couple of days ago," he replied, grinning at me. "There was also a lot of weird shit done to the system. The modifications are pretty clever though, and I'm trying to reverse-engineer them."

"It wouldn't happen to be one of the drones involved with the robberies across the city earlier this month, would it?" I said.

Spencer nodded.

"Yeah, actually. It is," he said. He frowned, looking at it. "The only one, in fact. An A-Rank Magical Girl managed to snipe it during a skirmish in the 19th District, which is where we picked it up from."

I stared at the machine, a chill running down my spine. I walked over, picking up a loose arm from it.

"I'll say. I was there. One of the hostages, actually."

Spencer looked up at me, giving me a blank stare.

"Seriously?! How come you didn't tell us this earlier?" Spencer exclaimed. "You were there when the drone was taken out?!"

I shrugged, shaking my head. "Didn't really come up, and it's not like it's something I can bring up in normal conversation."

"I guess. But fuck me sideways, what are the chances?!"

"Yeah I hear that a lot lately. The odds of my getting involved in these things are kinda freaky. But I guess I've run into a lot of freak coincidences lately."

Ever since I stumbled face-first into the briefcase containing Rai-chan.

"Well, damn. I'm surprised," he said. "But hey, I'm glad you're okay, and that this thing didn't do anything to you." He tapped the machine's chassis.

"I was scared shitless. But hey, I'm alright."

"Did you get a good look at it?"

"More than enough for a lifetime. The woman controlling it was a real fucking psycho. But the thing itself is... I dunno how to describe it, but it's scary. She flat out kicked down a reinforced steel door with this thing over at the downtown Mana Exchange and didn't even flinch, and it was way stronger than it had any right to be."

"Stronger than you'd think, huh?" Spencer said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He walked over to a computer screen. He gestured for me to follow. I obliged.

He opened a folder and showed me some photos. It was of a massive, gaping hole punched straight through a reinforced concrete wall.

"This was at one of Sisyphus's R&D labs in District 5. We think they were after a couple of my dad's prototypes, but we aren't really sure what the specifics of the attack were for. We just know a lot of people died, and it wasn't pretty. This is the aftermath. There were decoy attacks all over the city, but this was a major point of interest."

"Holy shit," I breathed. "That's insane."

"Yeah," he said, nodding grimly. "They wiped the cameras and didn't leave any witnesses. Whoever these assholes are, they have access to high-tech military hardware, a lot of knowledge of our systems, and some pretty powerful magic."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "Do they know anything else about them?"

He shrugged, clicking on a different folder, and opening up a new file. There were a few documents in there, along with a picture.

"These were taken by a bystander, who was spotted and shot through her car and left for dead. It looks like this group has at least four members," Spencer said, pointing to four blurry figures on the image in ski masks, "but it's not clear if there's more. They seem to be a mixed bag of talents. One's a mage, another seems to have an affinity with firearms. Another has an affinity with animals, while another seems to fight with knives and internal magic. I'm still going through all of the data and trying to get a clearer picture of them, but we don't know who they are, or where they came from."

I looked at the photo of the masked individuals.

It looked like there was a fight going on between the figures, and they appeared to be in a dense jungle.

"There was a lot of evidence at the site where they were spotted. They left behind a few corpses, along with some blood samples and a few other bits and pieces," Spencer explained. "The DNA we've identified were from known mercenaries operating wanted internationally, and they weren't small ticket operators either."

"Do you have a hunch about who they could be? Like a criminal organization?" I asked.

Spencer paused, before shrugging.

"Not at all, to be honest," Spencer replied. "Many of them have ties to the Necromancer of Mindanao, a notorious sorceress that's been impossible for even some of the best diviners and S-Rank magical girls to pin down, and her own group is just as secretive, but the Necromancer's network is far-flung and she has a lot of followers."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Yeah." Spencer shook his head. "Hana of the Dawn actually has a personal vendetta against this one, and I haven't told her about the connection here nor do I intend to. You could even say the Necromancer is her arch-nemesis. I'm afraid she could lose her cool if she got on the case."

Did Dior have some bad blood with this terrorist group?

"What do you know about the Necromancer?" I asked. I was curious about her.

"Well," Spencer said, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his notes. "Let's see... The Necromancer of Mindanao is a powerful and enigmatic figure that's been operating for at least a decade, and is responsible for some truly heinous crimes, including the creation and deployment of child soldiers trained in sympathetic magic. She took advantage of growing grievances between the Rajputs of Panyupayana to manipulate and toppled the city-states down there while international powers were busy with the Fourth Chaos War."

"What do they want? Is there a motive?"

Spencer shook his head again, and sighed. He scrolled through his files for a bit.

"Unclear, to be honest. She has her hands in a lot of cookie jars and a lot of her minions and followers don't really have any unifying factor or motive beyond worship of death itself."

"What's her background?"

Spencer shrugged. "We're not really sure. Nobody is even quite certain what she looks like, to be honest. There's some blurry footage of her that's a bit more reliable than some of the other rumors, but she seems to be a woman of western European descent."

"What's her MO?" I asked.

"Leads a cult-like group of mercenaries, criminals and assassins, some of whom are pretty infamous in the world of terrorism. They're pretty fanatical, and have been known to commit suicide in the name of the cause. She's a powerful practitioner of magic and necromancy. She can reanimate corpses and raise armies of the undead. We lost a few C-Ranks and B-Ranks sent to investigate her, and the next thing we knew she managed to get the drop on a pair of A-Ranks and puppeted them too. They don't seem to 'expire' on their own and the abilities those magical girls had has made it risky to hunt her down. It's pretty creepy too, because no known magic system on Terra has abilities like hers."

I shuddered.

"Child soldiers... desecrating corpses and dead heroes to use against the living..." I muttered. "That's beyond messed up."

"Yeah. And we're not sure why she did it either, beyond some vague 'death is the only cure for this world' dogma."

I looked at the photo, trying to imagine the kind of person who would create child soldiers, or use dead bodies as puppets to assassinate the heroes who tried to stop her. The idea that there could be someone out there who could do that, who could be that monstrous, chilled me to the bone.

"The working name for her organization is the Cult of the Strangled Nightingale. There is a lot of iconography around violently silenced birds, and there is a sort of mythological bent to some of their activities."

I took a moment to consider what I'd just heard. A powerful, elusive villainess who used necromancy, led child soldiers and was responsible for assassinations on magical girls.

It was a chilling picture.

I looked at Spencer. He was still staring at his computer, reading his notes, a frown creasing his features. He pulled up an image of a tattoo: it was a nightingale with its wings cut off, and noose around its throat and beak.

"This is one of their calling cards," he said, pointing it out. "Dad thinks it might be the Necromancer's personal crest. There have been some similar ones that we've found, and a couple of them have some sort of religious significance."

Spencer sighed. "But that's about all the world knows so far. They're well-organized, highly secretive, and extremely dangerous. They've committed multiple atrocities and massacres, and we're still not sure what they're trying to achieve. The real destabilizing element is that most of her foot soldiers are Earthborn Filipinos and usually know nothing beyond how to follow basic orders, so she has a ready pool of manpower that's hard to track down. It's obscure for your regular old, average civilian know about, but it doesn't do well for the reputation of people from Earth for people glued in on international news, to put it mildly. Some of the Visyayans have started calling her the Crow Mother."

"Damn." I muttered.

"Yeah," Spencer replied. He scrolled through the files some more. "She hasn't caused enough trouble to bring the world down on her, unfortunately. But the Rajputs down there became failed states directly because of her. So far, the only people who've had success in fighting her have been other paramilitary groups or local militaries. We don't have much in terms of intelligence, and the information we do have is spotty at best. All we have is hearsay, really."

"So what are her goons doing all the way out here?" I asked, looking at the images of the masked figures.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Spencer said, tapping the photo of the masked figures. "It's hard to imagine that there could be any connection to the robberies here in Shoreline City. But it's a clue."

"I hope we find something," I muttered. "Because it seems like things are getting out of hand."

Spencer nodded.

"Yeah. We'll have to work together on this. Apart from Project Raiju, this is the grunt work Sisyphus has for us as of late." He stood up and walked over to the pile of scrap parts. "But hey, thanks for bringing lunch, man. I appreciate it."

"Hey, don't sweat it," I said, chuckling. "It was no trouble."

"Thanks for that. I needed the energy boost," Spencer replied, grinning at me. He picked up a pair of pliers and a soldering iron.

"Let me help you with that too while I'm here," I said.

He raised an eyebrow, and looked at me curiously. "You sure? You don't have to do that, man."

"I'm a member of the team, aren't I?" I said. "And besides, I like tinkering. Plus, I'm sure I can pick up some new techniques from you, too."

Spencer smiled, handing me a tool belt, and we got to work.

"The Cult of the Strangled Nightingale huh? I wonder what could've made someone develop such a hate boner for birds."

"Maybe the Crow Mother had a traumatic experience as a child, or maybe she just hates birds in general. I'm sure it's some sort of symbolism that only makes sense to them though."

I shuddered, and tried to push the idea out of my mind. "Let's get back to work, yeah? I've been thinking too much about creepy shit today, and I want to give my brain a rest."

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