Police report of missing children in New Houston Yards, written by Second Investigator Rishab Kali of The Fourth Precinct.

As of October 10th, nine reports have come in from various orphanages around the area over the last two months regarding children who went missing. All nine children were aged 13-17, and have been described by witnesses as delinquents who were prone to engaging in minor criminal misdemeanors. Rufus Wickard, head administrator of the Ken and Leon Foundation for Adolescent Rehabilitation, has said recently that a criminal organization known as Steel Tygers has become more active in the area, and that he has needed to lock down the dormitory several times following drug usage supplied by the Tygers.

During two weeks of investigation, we can confirm that the Steel Tygers induct adolescents into their ranks. Therefore, it is likely that the missing children have run away from their orphanages to join the organization.

[Further details about the nine missing children and the involvement of the Steel Tygers in New Houston Yards.]

8:30 AM October 13th

Diana

I was busy sitting in the waiting room of the orphanage, the first one I was going to visit today. But this one wasn't in New Houston Yards. Today, I was here to see the only other person I could say I saved from Soul Killer.

Olivia teetered down the hall, holding the hand of her caretaker, who smiled at me as they approached. Olivia wasn't any normal child; she had an Implant and was once possessed by Soul Killer. There was every likelihood that she would develop genetic issues as she grew up.

Dryder had done himself well. The Mayfair Institute was an orphanage on paper, but my time here had shown me that most of the children were victims of forced Implantation. Sadness crept through me when I had first wandered the halls; children barely old enough to speak had stumps on their arms, scars from Shardware, and irregular spines as they outgrew their Neuroframes.

Just like Indra Harmony. If only she'd found support in a place like this, instead of Kendrick Rorsche. And now they were both dead.

"It's always a pleasure to have you, Diana." Dr. Moira Gillian shook my hand, Olivia pouncing onto my leg as her bright smile cheered me up.

"Where have you beeennn? I missed you." Olivia pouted, and I found myself able to smile more easily when she was around.

I rustled my hands through her hair. "I missed you too, Olivia. I'm sorry for not coming more, I have to go put bad guys in jail. What have you been up to?"

"Moira's been making me read books, the fancy ones on paper!" Olivia mimed opening and closing a book, then she waved one of her fingers at me. "Even gave me a cut, but it's gone now."

"Wow, who knew books were so dangerous?" I inspected the finger, Olivia — like all the other Mutants in Soul Killer's company had a healing mutation that ate at their own Warp Energy — and just as I always did when I visited Olivia, I honed in on that Bronze.

Ensuring that there was only Bronze.

I sighed out of relief, happy to know that she was coming through relatively stable. Except for one new addition.

"And what's this poking out of your head?" I pointed at a small green bony protrusion nestled in her hair.

"No, don't look at it!" Olivia cupped her head, hiding her new horn. "It's so ugly!"

"It's not ugly." I calmed her down, but looked concerned at Moira. She was the expert on child Mutations here.

Moira gave me a reassuring smile. "Olivia's mutation is related to feeling changes in air pressure and sonic vibrations, alongside that, her scale-mutation has been subsided from the medical course I prescribed her, but it prompted a sudden Parallel Divergence that resulted in her spawning a scaly horn sensitive to minute changes in the air."

"Oh. I thought Parallel Divergence was rare." I took a closer, but not privacy-invading look at the small green bud poking out of Olivia's hair.

"In adults, yes. But… children are constantly growing and developing, trying to suppress their Mutations too much can result in their implants developing new variants. It was a common method for… You know who… to discover new Mutations." Moira's face got a bit more sullen. "But rest assured, Olivia is perfectly healthy, and isn't showing signs of any malignant Mutations. She's a very strong girl, don't you think so, Olivia?"

"Very strong. Like Diana!" Olivia flashed a toothy smile, before a sudden thought came to her. "Oh, did I tell you about the book I was reading? It's super duper old, like from the very old days!"

"Oh, what is it?"

"It's called X-Men!" She brought her hands up in an x-pattern. "It's about superheroes!"

"Oh, and which superhero are you?"

Her smile turned into a childlike grumble at that. "Saleem said I look like Magik with the horn, but she's so mean! I'm a good girl!"

"But Magik's a superhero, right?"

"She is… but I want to be like Storm! She's so cool, she's kind of like you!" Olivia picked up my hand, mouthing like a zap was coming out of them. "She makes lightning like you do!"

"I can do a lot more than make lightning, you know." I tapped one of the metal hair clips in my hair, a small charge flung into it, and I floated it off my head.

"Oh, you're like Magneto too!… But he's a bad guy!"

Moira corrected her. "He's misunderstood. I'm still working on her media literacy."

"Well, I'll make sure that Olivia understands that I only ever do good, as long as she promises to be good too. No more punching Saleem when he doesn't share his toys."

"It was one time!" Olivia grumbled. "He took it from me first!"

"Violence isn't the answer, Olivia." Moira rustled Olivia's hair.

"I know, I know! I won't punch anyone anymore, but is kicking fine?"

"No." Both Moira and I said at the same time.

"You want to be a superhero, right? Then use your words." I playfully squeezed her cheeks.

"Do you use your words?"

"Sometimes." I chuckled, a sad smile slipping through.

"Then are you a superhero, too? Or just sometimes?" Olivia teased me, and I let out a faint laugh.

I still managed to say what she needed to hear. "I'll be one all the time, if that makes you good."

———

I'd said goodbye to Olivia, but hadn't yet left the Mayfair Institute. Deeper in the facility, Dr. Moira was busy showing me her notes, but my lack of a PHD in genetics and Warp theory didn't help me much.

Her story wasn't something she shared with me, but it was clear that she also had a history with Soul Killer. The various crimson flowers sealed in flasks and vials within this lab told me as much. In fact, lately, I'd been using her as my geneticist over Dr. Faltest — I couldn't trust a pawn of my father's even if she was insistent on trying to get a greater understanding out of what was once my Mutational Synergy Mutation.

A Deviant Mutation, born from The Source-Shard of Change. And now birthed into the Soul Resonance Mutation. I still kept that secret close to my chest, simply telling Moira that I did have a way to counteract Soul Killer's corruptive ability, and she respected my wish to keep it a secret.

Dryder had found a good ally in her — or her, in him.

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Dryder, too, had his bundle of secrets. From my assessment of the man, I knew he was a former Investigator in The First Precinct, but all records of a partner to Juliet Grazhe were under lock and key. Either his information was sealed away, or he had entirely erased his old identity.

That was the price you pay when your enemy can steal the souls of those closest to you. I pulled out the SIM of one of Soul Killer's Nexi, which I had yet to absorb.

A thud sounded from the far end of the room. A small child with bat-wing-shaped ears was seated behind a glassy wall, her eyes red and white the moment I pulled out the SIM.

The child, only known as L5C, who we called Lucy was but a small dot in the long line of reasons why Soul Killer had to be stopped — fear be damned. Dryder had intercepted one of Soul Killer's transfers, which was masked as a child trafficking ring of Muramasa's, actually involving them selling Lucy to a mysterious buyer — Simon Jugosla.

Except, this was no ordinary child. Soul Killer's control over his infected required a Nexus to be in range. Typically, Nexuses were Silver Grade and capable of controlling up to a hundred soulless. Lucy was a Silver Nexus and disconnected from their Gold controller, who was supposedly under the influence of Soul Killer's real Titanium self.

Somewhere in Westbrook, the real host of Soul Killer was broadcasting their psionic signal out. Or at least, that's what I thought. Turns out, if The Host were to do that… it would be very easily picked up by Westbrook's senior psychics. Which was why Soul Killer acted on a close-range basis most of the time.

Lucy stared at me, and the red in her eyes was like a fire, constantly giving way to normalcy. "You can't cure her, many have tried."

Soul Killer laughed, but the way they stared at the Silver bead in my hands, it was like an addict staring to their gateway to another realm. "Give that! Now!"

When my ability to remove Soul Killer's curse was confirmed by Dryder, this was the first place he brought me to. Originally, there were three other children here, but Lucy was the only Nexus — and I had something they wanted.

In truth, I'd tried removing the Nexus Mutation from her several times, but it was far denser than any of Soul Killer's other variants. It was like a chunk of metal that I was trying to tear apart with my unmutated hands. Stagnant and arrogant.

Moira sighed as Lucy banged her head against the glass again. "Thank god she doesn't have the newer variant of Soul-Death… I've subdued most of her Mutations, this time even dulled her with a Silver Gene-Limiter, think you can do it, Diana?"

Soul-Death… The Mutation Soul Killer had been researching in the lab I stayed in. If it progressed to a hundred percent, it rapidly dropped compatibility to turn a Soulless into a MALformed. As far as we knew there were two variants of it,the older strain required a vial of its Mutagen to activate the mutation, the newer strain allowed Soul Killer to spontaneously turn any of their puppets into a MALformed.

"I'll try," I responded as I clicked a button. Gas spilled through the confines of Lucy's chamber, her eyes fading to normalcy as she stumbled to the ground unconscious. Then the door beeped, and I entered through with a gas mask.

I grasped the Silver Nexus SIM, aching to find that tiny yet significant clump of Titanium welling within it. It was easy for me to detect Titanium Energy using Soul Resonance, this orb was to tell me if the Adapter was a host for Soul Killer, and more importantly, to find out if they were a Nexus.

As long as I had it on me, I could compare and contrast the vague shifts in each person's 'soul', a sort of innate understanding to me that came in a feeling of density and motion that was felt but not seen. My fingernail sharpened, and I drew a small cut on Lucy's forehead.

Our energies intertwined, but my Gold was a raging inferno to her Silver's cracking stone — an Earth Tendency. This was one of the reasons why it was so much more difficult to remove the influence from a Silver Grade Nexus — their Mutation carried a Tendency unlike those of Bronze Grade.

Soul Killer, as a Titanium, would have three Tendencies to deal with. And I'd need to learn how to combat each before becoming the ultimate weapon against him. So far, I only had my Fire Tendency, but would one day awaken a second one as a Gold.

My wisps raged past her stony fortress of a soul, crumbling it to sand as I found the dense core of Titanium nestled deep in her head. The difference in resistance was colossal; not only was I attempting to cure a Tier III Mutation, but it also seemed entirely aware of my attempts to cure it.

Despite the impenetrable stone it seemed like, the miasmic depths of Titanium flowed in a way I could only call stubborn, refusing to break apart or burn to my wrath. I poured more of myself into my attempt, my entire hand glowing as veins of electricity-produced light surged beneath my skin. I poured myself, reaching deeper and deeper, commanding the Mutation to fade away.

Until I reached 'the threshold', the point of myself where my control of external Warp Energy wasn't enough to balance the overwhelming inferno I sent into her skull. I had to pull back, fearful that any more would cause irreparable damage.

For another few minutes, I struggled and seared away at the Titanium, breaking it apart ever so slowly. But never entirely.

I stepped back, staring at my own hands and desperately wanting to bash them into a wall. I failed. Again.

I stormed out of the room, as Moira came in to ensure there wasn't any extra damage I'd caused… it had happened before. Bleeding, swollen eyes, their Mutations going haywire… and to children, I had to be careful. I couldn't let myself lose control.

Not after… everything.

"She's stable." Moira settled Lucy into her bed. "Good job, Diana."

"It's not a good job until she can be up there." My nails dug into my skin. The pain was the only distraction. "I don't get it!"

"Soul Killer's a Titanium, Diana. The fact that you can do this much is already more than enough." Moira was still busy running tests, but her words were true to a degree.

Yet, a fire burned through me. "I have to do more."

"And you are. And not just against Soul Killer." Moira came out with collected tissue samples. "You're a great influence on Olivia; she wouldn't have recovered half as well, not mentally, if you weren't there."

"Please, you've been helping her to see a psychiatrist who's sealed away most of her memories of that lab. I know she's getting help far better than I." I took my seat, wanting to sink into it and forget everything that's happened over the last few months.

"You should see her as well." Moira's eyes looked at me with an uncertainty I hadn't regularly seen on the woman. "She's good at what she does."

"Not happening. Not with the things that I know… and… Founder, Olivia might not remember everything, but she still has nightmares about it." The little girl had messaged me many times throughout the night over the last few weeks, and I did my best to comfort her.

"That therapist keeps many secrets, yours isn't top of the list — she knows about Soul Killer." Moira reminded me.

"There are other secrets than those that I have to keep." Like Ripley, Himiko, The Source… The Allseeing. And I'd had enough of a bad experience the last time someone sent me through a trip into my memories. "And you don't tell me anything else about her."

"She's an ally."

"That's not enough… does Dryder trust her?"

"To look after these children, yes." Moira settled opposite me, with a metal box in her hands. "But honestly, not enough to go for more sessions with her after the first time he did. He found his therapy… elsewhere."

"Then my point stands." I looked at the box, the reason I came here on an empty stomach. "I hate how wrong this feels."

Moira opened it, revealing a collection of metallic quills broken into small pieces. Then she put down another box, this one containing scale-like stone pieces. A third contained a vial of purple-blue liquid.

Each of them were… excised from the children here. Their wayward Mutations and low compatibility meant that more likely than not, they lacked control over how their altered morphology could affect them.

The quills came from Nathan, a twelve-year-old boy who was once in Los Diablos' captivity, where they used his metallic quills as ammunition for various custom firearms. The scales were sourced by fifteen-year-old Athena, who was raised to look like a dragon-turned-woman for… a club. The purple liquid came from four-year-old Ezra. His eyes leaked the viscous fluid — a heavy-metal-based poison that Muramasa used as a hallucinogen for their Shard Adapters.

This was the reason why I needed to take that case. They were the reason.

After everything that I've been through, I knew what it was like to be seen as an experiment. To be kept in a damn cage, helpless with nothing but hope that divine intervention would save you. Except I had a cheat, I was powerful and capable and always growing and changing but these damn children were helpless.

I'd walked through entire hallways in this institute, where kids had bent knees and struggled to walk, outgrowths of hair from their eyelashes going down to their knees that would leave them socially ostracized, eyes that weren't used to sunlight and developed films that made them blind — children who burnt, melted, rusted, froze, shriveled, twisted or dissolved anything they touched.

And many of these children were still out there, permutating a cycle where they were so hurt by the world around them that they found peace in hurting it back. Like Indra Harmony.

And maybe to a degree, like me.

I don't think I'd ever relished combat as much as I did now. To flaunt my overwhelming power.

Founders knew Lilian Rose loved it.

And to fight was fact. Soul Killer hadn't given me much choice, I was a soldier now in this hidden war against the city's most nefarious boogeyman.

Too many children had their futures stolen from them, but yet, it was our duty to fix this damn city. It was my duty, at least, Moira's, and Dryder's. Even if it was just the three of us, we would do whatever it takes.

And so, I lifted the first quill up to my eyes.

And bit into it.

———

Getting into a tinted car, I wasn't surprised to see a man sleeping in the passenger seat. Nudging him in his shoulder, Dryder's eyelids didn't even flinch. So I zapped him.

He awoke up in a startle. "Fuckin' hell, Diana! I thought we went over this!"

"We did." I started the car, looking in the mirror to make sure my appearance was no longer that of Diana Jones… or Ulrich. "You told me not to zap you awake when you're passed out, I disagreed."

"I liked my old partner more." He groaned, rubbing the grogginess out of his face. "Juliet kicked me instead of…"

His drowsy eyes shook a little, almost as though he was surprised to have mentioned her name. Anthony's mother… Juliet Grazhe. He burped, changing topic. "So you're leaving the Precinct for a bit?"

"A couple of days, heading down to the Fourth." I nodded, my eyes flicking ever so often to the mirror as I noticed a few strands of my now-black hair bleaching white. A cinder of Gold crisped the hair down so everything stayed that charred color. "Orphaned children gone missing, could be-"

"It's not Soul Killer." Dryder shook his head. "The bastard doesn't work like that, half the kids in their labs were born there. Other half were sold to him, doesn't always go around poaching people… only those who look into 'em."

Dryder reached for a bottle, taking a deep gulp. I couldn't care less, there was a reason why I was driving. "Where to?"

"Not Los Diablos… they were a bust." Dryder sighed, the last stakeout was all but worthless, no signs of a Kaisel clone or Soul Killer. He weighed his head and neck into the window, eyes drifting away under his drunkenness. "The hospital."

I stayed silent. "Why?"

"You know why."

"Anthony…" I sighed, my heart feeling choked just thinking about him.

"Where we're going," Dryder turned to me, his eyes sharpening. "We got to say goodbye every chance we get."

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