Escalating Evolution

October 13th, 2010

In the basement of an abandoned auto shop, Taylor Hebert sat on the rusted hull of a long abandoned car. The hunk of junk had long been stripped of all parts with even a hint of value, but it still made for a decent stool for the teenage cape to sit and ponder. She toyed with the ring of eight small stones that had been bound to her since that cursed day at camp. None of the stones were anything even approaching normal, from the odd, burning heat of the first, as if a raging wildfire was trapped within the orange gem, to the strange way the final blue gem contorted in her hand, like a bubble that refused to pop. All of them defied all logic and reason in their own way, as if mocking the world for trying to explain them. 

Surrounded by the dust, unrecognizable garbage, and countless other debris scattered over the floor, Taylor allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts for the first time all month as she ran her fingers through the eight stones again and again.

She knew that what she used for the past month had been no more than a sliver of her true potential, and it terrified her. Not at how her powers altered her mind, for all their changes she was still ultimately Taylor Hebert no matter what form she took. No, she feared what she would do with her power, for she was not a good person. After all, a good person would not have that… thing inside of them. For despite how much her stomach roiled at the idea there was no denying the truth. Her powers did not, could not, alter her mind on any fundamental level. The very fact that… monster existed was proof that it was a part of her. She feared that she would eventually become like that creature that haunted her nightmares, so until now she had refused to use anything other than her thunder form. 

But now… 

She was tired. 

Tired of running. Tired of fighting every time she went outside. Tired of being afraid of Lung capturing her and forcing her to join his gang. Tired of being called a villain and a monster just for existing. Most of all she was tired of the near weekly shows that made her out to be a childish brat throwing a temper tantrum. Just as she had said to Armsmaster, she was done. It was time to let down her walls, time for her other forms to take the stage. 

Well, except for her.

Banishing the thoughts of the one form she despised, Taylor Hebert finally allowed for the bonds she placed onto her mind to slacken. Breathing a sigh of relief as a burden she had never even noticed finally eased. 

For a few minutes nothing happened, then the room was filled with a blinding white light. As if a star had consumed the entire room in mere instants. Despite the bright light consuming all around her, Taylor felt a haze overtake her mind ever so slowly. There was no reason to resist it, in fact Taylor embraced the dark of sleep, stepping out of the way for the other forms to take over.

After mere seconds the light faded, and instead of the yellow haired tomboy known to all Brocktonites with more than two functioning brain cells, there was a pale japanese beauty clad in a pink sakura print yukata. Unlike the more humanoid form she used previously, this one was covered in a thin layer of pale blue fur that slowly darkened into a majestic shade at her hands, feet, and newly sprouted tail. Said thick tail reached down to her thighs, the appendage sensually caressing the deceptively slender muscles of her lower half. Just like before she sported a set of animal ears, but this pair was thicker. On her forehead was a crownlike structure, with wide ribbons trailing down both sides of her head and resting on either side of her respectable chest.

The pink eyes of Gaze roamed over the garage before huffing in distaste. Her mouth curled down in a scowl as she stood and walked around the small room. The more careful inspection only made her scowl grow fiercer, and she soon stopped after her second round. 

 “What a disgraceful place for you to leave me in Jolt.” Her voice was accompanied by clouds of mist spewing from her pale lips with every breath. The clouds sank to the floor, soon smothering the concrete under a thin layer of fog. Even when she could guess why the electrokinetic had sheltered there, she couldn’t help but sneer in disgust at the state of her temporary hideout. It looked like a drug den, probably was at some point, she had to have standards. She couldn’t just accept hiding away in this giant trash can like a rat. Her mind flashed with the words the three most hated people in her life once said but she quickly banished them back to the frozen dungeons of her mind. They had no power over her anymore.

After one final look over of the room, Taylor scoffed and strode out of the ruined garage. The street outside it was not much better than the garage, with trash scattered all over and used needles carelessly discarded in the corners. The faint blue of her lips contorted into an outright grimace at the sights she picked up, lingering residue of blood and other bodily fluids, the clumps of wet leaves hiding sections of the broken down road from the sight of anyone with normal vision. Those were only the most obvious contaminates, as her sight lingered she began to pick up on traces of spilt alcohol, vomit, and even urine practically soaking into the entire street. The stomach rolling mixture broadcasting the pathetic state a once middle class neighborhood had been reduced to.

Stopping in the middle of the street, Gaze brought her left foot down in a quick stomp. From the point of impact ice spread, quickly enveloping the area until all that the eye could see was covered in a half inch of pale blue ice. Her right hand swiped out, sending the unwanted refuse over her new domain rolling out. The cracked road was repaired by thousands of pebbles filling up the irritating faults. Potholes were removed, needles and shards of glass crushed in an icy grip to be cast away from her new home. In a matter of seconds all that was left was a pristine land of cold beauty. 

“Much better.” Gaze huffed, her arms returning to their natural place under her breasts. “Far more fitting a place for one such as I to reside. Still, ” She began to harness her powers once more, soon breaking apart the building she swapped with Jolt in until there was nothing left but a foundation and neat piles of building material. 

Looking over the heaps of metal, wood, and plastic, pink eyes tilted down in revulsion at the horrific quality the garage was made with. Every bit of metal was either half rusted or fully gone, asbestos lay inside the walls before her ice quickly destroyed it, and the wood was more fit for burning than building so much as an outhouse. 

With a shake of her head Gaze made her choice. “Unfortunate as my lack of material is, I appear to be in no position to reject this housing.” If any were around to hear her, they would swear that Gaze's voice could cut a man in two. As it was, none were unlucky enough to be exposed to the queen of ice and snow’s displeasure. Though that would hardly last for much longer.

The cry of sirens and a tell-tale rumble announced the arrival of a squad of PRT troopers and Miss Militia. Before they even entered her domain Gaze already knew their precise numbers. For her senses, their body heat practically screamed out. Though she was surprised to sense one body alternating between a regular temperature and no heat at all, though a moment's consideration made the identity of the strange being obvious. 

Shadow stalker

What a disgraceful name. She mused, lip curling even as the forces slowly entered her new domain. Who would label themself after those who indulge in such a perverse obsession. Though she made sure to wipe her scowl away when the group finally reached earshot of her and Miss Militia called out.

Miss militia pov

“Miss Militia,” The call came in when the Kurdish heroine was halfway done with her regular patrol route. Dauntless’s typical tone of relaxed yet ready sounding through her earpiece. He might have a bit of an ego problem, but Hannah didn’t have much to complain about the rising star of Protectorate ENE.

“Yes Dauntless, what is it?” While talking she swerved to go through an alleyway. She didn’t always take back roads like this, but it was policy to never keep too close to the ‘official’ route. Harder for the gangs to hide resources that way. Consol didn’t interrupt a patrol too often, but it wasn’t exactly rare either, in a city like Brockton Bay there was always some new disaster to respond to.

“Some new cape is making a scene in the Akame district, apparently she decided the place was too dirty for her and used some kinda cryokinesis to clean it up.” She tilted her head to the side, making her american flag mask bunch up around her neck in a way she never quite figured out how to stop.

“How’d she manage that?” The original ward had seen a lot of different versions of ice manipulation, and could think of three ways that such a feat could be done just off the top of her head, but Dauntless was far too relaxed for any of her imagined methods to be what the mysterious cape used.

A chuckle rang through the radio, further loosening the tension that always accompanied a new cape in the Bay. “Apparently she covered the debris in ice and moved it that way. Though I’d bet that she did something special to the needles, she seemed to have a particular dislike for them.” There was a hint of approval in her colleague's voice at the thought, though no one would blame him considering what happened to his cousin a few years ago.

Miss Militia made an appreciative noise, swerving to pass between two cars on the highway. “That level of control is uncommon among new cape’s what are we-” 

She was cut off by a sudden swear from dauntless, nearly making her ram into a telephone pole in surprise. “Dauntless are you-”

“I’m fine M, just didn’t expect our new friend to be quite so… active.” His tone held far more steel than before, not quite losing his humor entirely but he wasn’t playing around anymore. “Okay M, new plan.” Hannah refocused on the current situation, dismissing her concerns for a later date. “You are gonna meet up with a few troopers and Shadow Stalker then approach her.”

“Dauntless,” she asked carefully, “what did she do?” It couldn’t have been so bad if they were still willing to let a ward engage, but telling her to get any kind of help was unsettling. 

“Apparently she is a lot stronger with her ice than we thought.”

“Which means?” Hannah bit out, scraping by a lamppost as she sharply turned onto the second to last street before she would reach the Akame district.

“She covered each individual part of an auto shop with ice and ripped it to pieces.” Wincing, she was about to speak when Dauntless cut her off. “I don’t mean like how Lung or Kaiser do it, I mean that she tore it into its components like it was made of legos. Down to the god damn foundation. She even sorted the stuff into piles without looking.”

That. That was concerning. Tearing apart a house wasn’t exactly easy for most capes, but it was hardly anything special. Doing so with that kinda control, well… “Shaker seven, easy, depending on how much she can make at once she could go all the way up to a shaker nine.” She mechanically analyzed the capes potential ratings. For all that Armsmaster’s experience, even he couldn’t match Militia when it came to assessing a capes potential in the moment. Certain things could only be learned by interacting with capes since the early days of the PRT.

“What kind of person are we looking at Dauntless?” And that was why, with Armsmaster he always looked at the power to the point of occasionally missing the person. But Hannah knew from experience how even if a power seemed weak on the surface, it all came down to the skill of the user. Mouse protector taught her that back in the wards.

“Potential case 53, looks like a pale blue humanoid fox-girl with a thin layer of fur covering her entire body.”

Well that could either be very good, or very bad. Lately the Protectorate had been on a hot streak when it came to recruiting case 53s, but Hannah still remembered the first time she encountered one of the poor victims mutated by their powers. He was one of the first members that Jack Slash recruited to the nine after he killed king, Johnny had nearly killed her before Mouse saved her. Even years later she still struggled to forget the feeling of being crushed under those dark green hands. But she always put her first experiences behind her, no group deserves to be judged for one bad experience. She couldn’t even bring herself to hate Johnny either, not when he turned on Jack after learning what kind of person he was. He didn’t deserve what the insane psychopath had done to him.

The thing about someone who wakes up with no memory or any sense of who they are, it was really easy for them to end up caught up in the flow of one monster or another. So if she could protect this one from such a fate, well that was just what heroes do right?

After dauntless gave her a description of the mutated cape, Miss Militia pulled up to the gathering point a few streets away from the Bay's new winter wonderland. Her bike slowly quieted down from the rumble PR demanded that all bike riding hero’s have. 

Nodding to the troopers, Hannah motioned for Shadow Stalker to follow her and entered the icy domain. 

It was slippery, with the ground covered in ice walking was quite difficult for the group. Once a trooper almost slammed into her after losing his footing on the icy floor. Luckily she managed to react in time to catch him and everyone was more careful from then on.

When they finally made it to the center the culprit behind the flash freeze was obvious. To Miss Militia's great relief she was indeed wearing clothes, a luxury that most case 53's didn’t get when they first awoke. Her figure was somehow familiar to the kurdish cape, but she soon dismissed the thought and stepped forward into the clearing that had once been a rundown neighborhood.

“Hello.” She called out to the pink clad figure, making sure to keep her power in the shape of a concealed switchblade so the potential case 53 wouldn’t panic. 

“Hello Miss Militia,” The figure didn’t even turn around, continuing her work as she spoke to the group without a hint of surprise. 

Potential thinker rating. Maybe she can feel through her ice?

“It is a pleasure to meet you today. I hope you forgive the lack of  a proper introduction, as you seem to have caught me at a rather busy moment.” 

Wincing at the stiff way of speaking, Hannah opened her mouth to respond before the cryokinetic cut her off with a wav of her tail.

“Oh, apologies for my tone. I was simply cross with an associate of mine and took it out on you, I hope that you will overlook that careless blunder.” 

Despite the cape’s words there wasn’t even a hint of apology in her voice, only confidence and a sense of superiority. As if the entire world was below her and just talking to her was a privilege. It somewhat reminded her of Kaiser, yet less… Malicious was the best word for it. 

When Kaiser spoke he did so to gain power, when this figure spoke she did so because she already had power. Like it was only natural for her to speak in such a matter and it was the rest of the world that was odd. 

Still Hannah had worked with far more eccentric people in the past, a slight attitude problem was hardly the worst thing she dealt with. I should probably keep an eye on Shadow Stalker though, the last thing we want is for this to become a fight.

Subtly resting her hand on the ward's shoulder, Hannah made sure that she got a nod from the girl before continuing. “Might I ask what your goal is here? Also could I ask for your name?” Experience told her that the best way to deal with a cape like this is to indulge them, most won’t escalate so long as you play along with their game.

The fox-like girl still didn’t turn around as her ice slowly assembled the countless pieces into larger and larger components that made little sense to Militia. Perhaps some kind of tinker? She didn’t get the chance to ponder for long before the elegant girl responded.

“Ah, of course. You may call me Gaze, as for what I am doing. Well my associate and I appear to disagree on appropriate housing for one of my standing, so I am fixing her mistake.” Despite not being able to see her face the scowl was evident in every word passing her lips. Whoever this association was, Gaze was borderline furious at them.

Not a case 53 then. There were no established case 53’s in the bay, unless one counted Faultlines crew but they always went about in groups of three or more. Besides, the mercenary gang only acted in the Bay when an S class threat was involved. The girl being a changer was… well not good as it meant she would probably hold the same issues that most capes did, but it removed some potential problems that the ENE branch was not at all equipped to deal with so that was something. 

Once more looking over to make sure that Shadow stalker wasn’t about to do anything stupid, Hannah quickly returned her sight to Gaze. “So, Gaze what is it that you plan to do once you finish correcting this mistake.”

“After I reconstruct this neighborhood to something that wouldn’t reflect badly on me, I will be constructing a proper residence on the bay.” The swirling clumps of ice and whatever was used to make this neighborhood spat out a pristine white and blue house onto the first empty foundation. Though unless she was somehow utterly misinterpreting Gaze’s words it wouldn’t be the last one.

“Wait.” Shadow Stalker interjected, “I thought you were making your house here.” 

This time Gaze actually paused in her work, as if Shadow Stalkers words were so ridiculous that they left her gaping in shock. Then the laughter came. Not roaring brays of barbaric joy, but elegant giggles conveying how silly she saw the question to be. For a whole minute there was nothing but the quiet giggles filling the air, and Hannah was starting to see tension build in Shadow Stalkers body before Gaze finally responded.

“I suppose my phrasing was too vague for the common folk, my apologies. For the sake of clarity, no I will not be making my home in this…” for the first time her voice dropped from her soothing calm to one of utter disgust and revulsion. “ PIT of a neighborhood. I am merely tidying it up before I depart as it would not reflect well on one such as I if I were to leave a mess that I have the power to clean, I’m sure you understand. After all, what is the phrase again?” Her tail went around to the front of her body, perhaps prodding at her lip like one would normally do with a finger. Moments passed with Gaze attempting to remember whatever phrase was in her mind before she shrugged and dismissed it.

“Regardless, no I will not be making my residence here. The bay is a much more fitting place for me to construct my domain, don’t you agree?” It was said as a question, but Gaze’s body language didn’t hold the slightest bit of uncertainty. She would be making her home in the bay, and she was practically daring them to try to stop her.

Knowing that she had to step in before Shadow Stalker angered the cape, Hannah moved closer to the cryokinetic. It took all of her years to not flinch when the second and third houses popped out of the maelstrom, filling two more empty foundations with pristine buildings that were radiating elegance. Those two buildings lining up with the first to complete this section of the road. After that Gaze walked down the street aways before continuing her work on three more empty lots.

With the changer and her snowstorm out of the way, Hannah got her first good look at the buildings. They were clearly eastern, but with the ABB grouping all Asian cultures together it was hard to remember the precise culture at this point. Of greater concern was the material the buildings were made of. All three buildings seemed to be constructed out of nothing but ice. Yet there wasn’t even a single droplet forming. Yes it was winter but there should have still been at least a few on the structures of ice, but despite all common sense there was nothing. Given the context though Hannah thought she might have an idea of what was going on.

As Clockblocker said everytime a new cape appeared in the Bay, powers are bullshit.

Shadow Stalker POV

Miss Militia stepped after Gaze, absentmindedly noticing Shadow Stalker following close behind as she approached the cryokinetic. “Excuse me, Gaze.” She didn’t turn around, but did gesture Hannah on with her tail. The lack of acknowledgment was starting to weigh on shadow stalkers nerves, as she started to tense up in fury. The violent teens attitude leached into the air, filling it with the same sense of strain coating her body. 

Each breath caused her crossbows to quiver in her white knuckled hands, the hunger to finally shoot something after nearly a whole month off the field only held back by Miss Militia's presence. She wanted so badly to put a few bolts into the arrogant changer's face, but she was only kept at bay after that incident because she had a useful power. If she was difficult to control she would either be sent off to a containment zone or juvie, and while her survival in either was guaranteed, she was a predator after all, like hell would she be put into a box and forgotten.

In her haze Stalker didn’t really take in what the pair was saying, at least not until her name was said. 

“If Shadow Stalker falls under your definition of a hero then I see no reason to work with you for anything but the most dire of circumstances.” 

It was the casual way she said it, more than just the words themselves, that set Sophia off. This bitch just showed up out of nowhere, having no idea what it was like in the Bay, and acted like the idea of calling her a hero was as ridiculous as saying that pigs could fly. She put her life on the line every time she put on her mask, and unlike the rest of the fucking sheep she got results. 

Sophia strode over to Gaze, ignoring whatever Miss Militia tried to say to her in favor of getting right up in the cryokinetics face. “The fuck are you trying to say.” Sopia’s voice was low, but it was filled with so much hate that it seemed to ooze out of her mouth and stain the air with her fury. “I don’t know who you think you are but I-”

She didn’t even get halfway through her first furious sentence before the flag-like tail slapped her in the face. It wasn’t a hard slap but the violent teen was sent stumbling backwards from the surprise. The tail was unnaturally cold, and it was only after being struck by the thing that she noticed Gaze’s entire body being coated in a thin layer of frost; her pale blue fur sticking out like tiny needles. It was a miracle that Sophia wasn’t scratched by the things when she was struck.

Finally regaining her footing, Sophia growled and whipped out her crossbow. Miss Militia tried to say something but whatever drab came out of the experienced heroine's mouth was ignored as the fight began. 

The teen launched two bolts from her crossbows, only for the tranquilizers to be blocked by the sudden appearance of sheets of ice. Sophia rolled to the side, expecting a blast of ice or some other counterattack but nothing came. Gaze only stood there, staring impassively at her with those damnable pink eyes. With the ease of long nights training Sophia loaded two more bolts into her crossbows, unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to get away with using the two bolts she had stashed in the sewers of this district but with Miss Militia there-.

She was forced to jump backwards in order to avoid the ice spikes that erupted from the ground. Only, when she was in the air two whips of frost lashed out at her and she only avoided them due to her quick change into shadows. Apparently that was enough for miss militia to get involved, as the Kurdish hero fired several bean bags at Gaze, attempting to stun her so the troopers rushing to join them could foam her.

But all of the attacks were blocked just as easily as Sophia’s initial bolts, screens of ice forming halfway through the flight path and robbing the projectiles of all their momentum. As the two capes continued to pepper Gaze’s shields, trying to find some kind of weakness, the inhuman cape was far from complacent, launching waves of ice, lashing out with whips of frost, and raising walls of cold crystal to restrict their movement.

The troopers quickly arrived, spraying foam at the blue furred girl the instant they were within range and for a brief second Sophia smirked in triumph. 

No way the bitch avoids that! The foam would just go around the girl's shields, and even if it didn’t they would just cocoon Gaze by spraying her from all directions at once.

Her hopes were dashed just as fast as they had risen. The strings of foam might not be halted by the screens of ice like her bolts and Miss Militia's bean bags, but they two were halted long before they got near Gaze. Instead of shields they were stopped by frost forming on the foam, weighing it down and draining its speed so that it fell pathetically to the ground in a heap. While they would have still been able to slowly cocoon Gaze if she had acted like she did at the fights start, staying in one space and attacking without even looking at them, they apparently had annoyed the girl enough that she decided to finally give them a bit of attention.

Surrounded on all sides by ever growing walls of foam, Gaze merely sighed and walked. 

UP

Into the sky on platformes of ice held aloof by her power.

“Oh, you have got to be fucking-” Sophias curse was cut off by the sharp snap of a whip of ice striking between her legs. A pathetic whimper squeaked out of her mouth as her knees buckled, her hands went between her legs to grip herself in agony. She tried her best but with the mind numbing pain tearing through her body it was impossible to keep track of the fight.

It was only a few moments before her mind cleared, but in that time Gaze had somehow burst the tanks on over half the troopers, burning them in cantonment foam, and she still hadn’t been so much as scratched by their efforts. Staggering to her feet, Sophia used her power on her bolt. Normally she was forbidden from doing it even with the puny tranquilizers they stuck her with, something about it getting caught in vital organs, but at this point the fight had gotten chaotic enough that they probably wouldn’t even notice.

When the snow bitch turned Sophia pounced, pulling the trigger and launching the shadow bolt right at the small of her back. Shields of ice popped up, but unlike with all the rest of their attacks the intangible bolt was completely unaffected. It went right through the barriers one after another, getting closer and closer to the infuriating cape until-.

Gaze leaned to the side and let the bolt fly right past her head without even turning around. 

The fuck?! Sophia's mouth dropped open in pure surprise. How did she know?! Her shadow bolts made no noise, they went through the ice without even nudging it, they didn’t even disturb air for crying out loud! How could she possibly have seen it coming?! 

Despite her utter confusion, the black clad ward easily avoided the furries counterattack, the three spikes of ice trying to pin her between them colliding, scattering small bits of cold crystal all over. Sophia ducked under a whip aiming to strike her face, the biting chill mere inches away from her nose forcing her to blink. 

A shout from Miss Militia made her phase on instinct, and not a second to soon as immediately afterward a hammer slammed through her, shattering on the concrete below. Suddenly two walls of ice sprung on either side and collapsed into a white cloud of snow. Unfortunately Sophia changed back right in time to get a lungful of cold, the unexpected sensation sending her into a coughing fit. 

By the time she recovered the fight was over. Ice or foam locked the troopers in place and Miss Militia was buried under a pile of ice and snow with only her head poking out. Sure Sophia was free but nothing she could do even scratched Gaze. The certainty of defeat burned, it made fury bubble underneath her skin and it was all Sophia could do to hold back from a suicidal charge.

Miss Militia POV 

Buried in ice and snow, Hannah mentally cursed Sophia's idiotic attack. The discussion had been going, well not that smooth but at least it hadn’t been heading toward a fight, but than an undisciplined wreck stuck her nose in and turned a slightly tense discussion into a full blown fight. Even worse there was no chance for her to stop the fight halfway, as the troopers had immediately jumped into the fray and escalated things beyond any repair.

Though given the state of her allies and herself, either locked in their own foam or trapped inside their own personal igloo, she supposed that they had already faced the consequences.

“I expected better Miss Militia.” Gaze’s voice was exactly as it was before the fight, as if nothing had happened at all. She hadn’t even turned around, like they were so far beneath her that even her eyes were too good for them. “You have been doing this for years, since the very first of the wards, and yet you can’t control a single problem child?” her blue white tail twitched in subtle irritation, “Pathetic.” 

Her final word was emphasized by the last of her constructed houses landing loudly onto the ground. She walked up, climbing further on the ice platforms forming underneath her with each step until she was able to look down on the much older cape. Honestly it would have been quite funny, if not for the situation surrounding it.

Hannah felt Gaze’s eyes on her trapped from, the weight of her stare pressing down on her like a physical force. The cryokinetics emotions were impossible for Hannah to even guess, the pink eyes seemingly devoid of all feeling. Moments stretched on for what seemed like an eternity, those inhuman eyes sucking in everything until the only ones remaining were Gaze and Hannah herself. A queen looking over her defeated foe, the subject of her ire unable to even speak to defend herself. 

Then it was over, Gaze turned away without a word and walked in the direction of the Ship Graveyard. 

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going you fridged bitch!”

Only to stop at Sophias call, at this point Hannah honestly had to wonder if the girl was suicidal. The cape had already beaten Shadow Stalker even when the ward had assistance, what the hell was she thinking, picking a fight with her again?

Hannah couldn’t even turn her head to look at the idiotic ward, trapped in her prison of ice and snow. The only thing she could do was hope, either that reinforcements would arrive in time, or that Gaze would keep to the apparent rules she had and refrain from butchering the violent former vigilante. 

There were several moments of complete and utter silence, a complete void that even the background noise of the city refused to break. As if the world itself was holding its breath in fear of Gaze’s verdict . 

Then the silence was broken by something that Hanah was certain nobody was expecting. 

Laughter.

Gaze’s chuckles rang through the otherwise silent clearing, the first sign of actual emotion that anyone could remember seeing from the mutated girl. Her exertions of amusement went on for nearly an entire minute, and when they finally ended Gaze responded with only one word.

“Home.”

Immediately after the word left her mouth the entire area was engulfed in a blizzard that dragged all into a world of white and cold. All senses were robbed by the maelstrom, so it was little wonder that by the time it finally cleared there was nothing but an empty sky where Gaze once stood.