The Vanguard takes to the twisted streets, their senses turned to pockets of heavy shadow around them, taking care to make wide arcs around the shapes that linger there, slithering through the roots. If they take any unnecessary fights now it would whittle down their resource pool. Every ounce of strength needs to be conserved for whatever tricks their primary target has, and so long as this anomalous artifact supplies the host anomaly power, the more difficult that fight will end up being.

  They move like shadows, near perfectly quiet even in the rain that continues to fall in heavy sheets, flooding the root cracked alleyways and pulsing lanes. Even with their cautious path, it takes them almost no time to reach the castle's ruined walls.

  They slip through the stone brick gatehouse and cross the front lawn, the earth churned into a sloppy mud pit by the tangle of veins. Silently they launch into the air, covering the ground effortlessly to land quieter than the rain atop the castle's red tile roof.

  A writhing mass of root structure burrows into the south tower from below, creating a hole large enough for Vanguard to slip through, replacing the cold outside air for equally cold, but much dryer, inside air.

  A shape inside gives Crow pause at the entrance, his every sense tuned to its twitching movements as it stands in the corner of the tower.

  He brings his hand to signal a hold, and that movement alone alerts the anomaly in front of him.

  Its top half spins around, a sickening snap rippling through its body as its legs follow soon after.

  it looks to have been human once, though luminescent veins burrowing into its skin and fuse with its muscles now. A collection of black eyes with stars behind them grow over the length of its raw, grey flesh, a budding flower in the place a head is meant to be.

  Crow grimaces, and that sends it twitching again, shifting closer to him.

  Someone moves behind Crow, and it charges them in an instant. Crow's eyes narrow to slits as he tries to predict its irregular movements. He is much faster than it, much more perceptive, but that doesn’t help him. He brings his sword down, carving through its flower-like head, and in the process sends grey black spores into the air.

  He holds his breath and flaps his wings, sending most of them away from his body, though the spores that make contact with his sword begin to devour it. The black feathers of his weapon dissolve into ichor and dribble onto the ground, forcing him to summon a new weapon.

  “Move!” Crow urges, and keeps his wings flapping at the collection of spores that begin to stick to the stone around them, melting them away, dissolving them into nothing as Vanguard rushes past him, bodies low, breaths held, until he is the last one.

  They emerge into a stairwell that brings them down further into the castle and away from the anomaly.

  “Any idea what that was?” Falcon asks.

  “Trouble”

  “Whatever it was, there are more of them,” Sparrow whispers.

  Each of their movements comes measured, breath shallow in their masks, as they stalk down the stairwells until they reach a visible hole in the wall leading to the castle's central courtyard.

  The central courtyard itself isn’t particularly large, though it has since been expanded, courtesy of a collapsed section of the historical site leading further south.

  The heavy rain saturates the ruined space. Crow’s eyes lock to the far wall, where a tablet marred with old inscriptions rests on the floor, veins exploding from it to carve ravines through the ground around.

  Surrounding the tablet and filling the courtyard are the jittering twitching, flower headed anomalies. Dozens of them, spread across the mud and down the ruined halls.

  “Hold…” Crow urges, though once again no one listens—no one but Falcon who echoes his command, actually getting a response from the others.

  The bodies in the courtyard respond to their movements in violent jerks of movement. They have eyes everywhere, can see everything around them, even the trace shadows on the wall have them humming with activity.

  Falcon picks up on this as well, and urges everyone away from the breach, instead bringing them inside a nearby bedroom littered with old plaques and velvet rope.

  As much as being ignored frustrates Crow, so long as their mission gets done that is the most important.

  Once everyone is safely inside the room, Falcon offers a nod to Crow and speaks up again. “They are picking up on something we can't disguise with stealth, we can’t just rush in there.”

  “We are faster than them, this is wasting time,” Condor grinds out, his eyes fixed on the tablet's location on the opposite end of the castle. “We teleport in, grab the tablet, teleport away and be done with this.”

  “The energy flows through at specific times. We need to wait for the next cycle so we can cut the signal after it sends it to the next location.” Crow explains.

  “Your caution is frustrating.” Condor says, inching towards the room's doorway.

  “And your rashness is going to get us all killed.”

  “Calm,” Falcon urges once more, ending the debate there.

  “We cannot rush in, the speed will damage them and release the spores,” Starling notes, bringing everyone's attention to her. “And if we move at subsonic speeds to avoid damaging them, we risk being spotted and releasing the spores anyway.”

  “Then teleport,” Condor tries.

  “We shouldn’t waste them, we will need everything we have when we fight the primary anomaly,” Falcon counters.

  “Well then, oh valiant leader, what say you?” Vulture mocks, inspecting one of his talons as a flash of lightning illuminates the swarming courtyard below in a brilliant blue. “Not that it matters much. Even if we manage this, Sparrow's failure is a team failure, we will all be decommissioned afterwards.”

  “To echo someone we used to know, were you born insufferable or is this a special occasion?” Crow spits out.

  “To echo my response, both.” He shrugs.

  “Crow, focus.” Falcon urges, bringing a hand to his shoulder.

  To some degree, Vulture is right once again, which he hates more than anything. He is right that if Sparrow's freeze gets reported to James, which it will be upon request, then it is very likely he will suffer for it, they will all suffer for it. They might not be decommissioned but whatever happens isn't going to be pretty. Sparrow needs to prove himself useful in this operation, prove that he is valuable to the team, and that means doing something only he could do.

  “Starling, count on hostiles?” Crow asks, nodding to the mass below.

  “33.”

  “Good”

  “Good?” Vulture raises an eyebrow.

  “Good, it's too many for us to fight, at least without risking losing more feathers. We need a precision strike.”

  “I’ll do it.” Condor moves even more forward, but Starling stops him.

  It looks as though Condor is going to say something, but upon realizing who stopped him he is given pause, confusion wrapping his eyes under the mask.

  “Sparrow can hide his presence, he can be practically invisible, if we want to take this down quickly we need to do it right.” Crow closes his eyes and carves a mental map of the mass of twitching bodies into the stone below.

  After the map is made, he plots a course through the anomalies, so as to ensure Sparrows path of travel follows the least dense collection.

  Crow continues. “Sparrow's ability to hide his presence bypasses nearly every logical sense, it shouldn’t be an issue to get through these anomalies, he is the only one who can do this in a way that ensures we maintain as many resources as possible.”

  Sparrow shakes his head feverishly, grip tight around his summoned weapon. “I can’t, I can't do it…”

  “Oh Christ, this again.” Vulture shakes his head.

  “Vulture! Shut the fuck up,” Crow snaps.

  “You can do it, you have to…” Falcon speaks softly, bringing himself to sparrows level. “We have your back, we won't let anything happen. If you or any of us sense danger Starling will port you out, alright?”

  Sparrow swallows hard, and looks to Starling who looks to Crow.

  What does she want from him? Some sort of confirmation?

  Crow nods, and Starling turns to face Sparrow again, returning the nod to him.

  “You can do it, come on,” Falcon urges.

  Sparrow shivers, his mind very likely on the brink, all he needs is a little more. Crow opens his mouth to speak, but is too slow. Instead, Falcon's tone hardens.

  “You can, because you must.”

  The room falls still for only a moment, a moment long enough for Crow to watch as Sparrow's demeanor begins to slowly shift.

  Layer by layer Crow watched Sparrow shed off his unease, his eyes meeting Starlings first, then Falcons, then Crows with increasing resolve.

  “I can do it… I can do it…”

  “That's it, let's go.” Falcon helps guide Sparrow towards the exit of the room, watching in awe as his presence slowly slips away into nothing. Even looking at the place he is, and calculating out the path he is going to be taking, Crow can’t spot him at all. His stealth is beyond supernatural, and is arguably the most impressive of all their abilities. He has no doubt that Sparrow can pull this off and secure his position within the team, so long as he doesn’t think about what it is he was doing too hard.

  “Why?” Starling's voice causes Crow to shift slightly, unaware that she had approached him from the side. As stealthy as Sparrow is with his ability, Starling has by far the most potent stealth without abilities.

  “Why what?” Crow asks, sparing her a cautious look.

  “Why protect him?”

  Crow inspects the edge of his feather sword, watching the light gleam off its wet edge with another flash of lighting outside.

  “Because I care about him.”

  “He will only serve to hinder us.”

  “You’d deny someone the potential to improve in the future?”

  “Hmmm.”

  “‘Hmmm’, that's all you have?” Crow spares her a passing look, hoping that maybe that mask of clinical apathy would drop, and she would reveal the depth of her emotions so he could finally understand what’s going on in that head of hers.

  She does not, the ever apathetic Starling remains unmoved.

  “I could conjure forth a false response if it makes you feel better,” she offers coolly.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “I'd rather you stay honest,” Crow admits, trying once again to locate Sparrow near the tablet, and failing to do so.

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because a painful truth is better than a pleasant lie.”

  “Ironic.”

  “Is it?”

  “For you, yes.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  “Not particularly.” Starling shrugs.

  Crow would rub the bridge of his nose if he could, but the mask is in the way, and keeping it on helps him stay focused, he realizes.

  “That was a joke.”

  “Not one of your better ones.” Crow sighs.

  “I’ll work on it.”

  “What do you want, Star?” Crow turns and gives her his full attention now, searching her blue eyes, desperate for something, though finding nothing there, exactly as he expects.

  “To understand.”

  “I’ll teach you a little something,” Vulture offers, carving his talon into the window frame next to him. “Sparrow is like their little mascot, a class pet they need to keep alive to prove to themselves that they are still good people, to prove to each other that they still care. Because without him around, well, they are just like you and me and Condor, and they can’t have that now can they?” He makes a kissy sound from under his mask, which makes Crow's blood boil.

  “Don’t paint your psychotic way of thinking onto us,” Falcon dismisses, and leans forward, waiting for something to happen.

  “Psychotic? Me? I’m the psycho? That's rich.”

  “No one would call you stable.” Condor notes from his spot on the wall.

  “Pot, meet kettle, you and I aren't all that different you kill hungry brute”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “Actions speak louder than words.”

  A hum echoes through the ruined castle walls, sending Crow to his feet in time to watch the south wall begin to glow with an ultraviolet hue

  “He better not have fucked this up,” Vulture murmurs.

  Sparrow reappears in the doorway as his ability drops, revealing his presence to the gathered Vanguard. His breath is hard in his chest, eyes wide, with a look of pride somewhere deep inside them.

  “I did it! It’s glowing! I think we should go!” Sparrow sputters out.

  Condor spins and punches the castle wall he leans against, sending the entire structure shuddering as the wall is blown away with a deafening crash of stone.

  The moment the open air greets them, the Vanguard dash out into the open air, cross the lawn and are back out over the bridge and into the city, their path headed straight for the next target.

  Wordlessly they duck and dodge the twisting webs, maneuver around collapsed houses, as they retrace their steps to the roots of the massive central tree. The map of the lanes and alleys is perfect in Crows mind, each ruined block of housing or collection of corrupted businesses, allowing them to return in only a fraction of the time. Reaching the base of the gnarled roots, they launch themselves upward, following the trunk until it meets the gnarled web of the streets lower ‘branches’

  “We can’t split up again!” Crow shouts as they drop back into subsonic to weave through the denser spirals higher into its mass. “We focus a single target till it's dead then move!”

  At the very least, Falcon, Sparrow, and Starling seem to hear him, and he can only hope that Vulture and Condor will simply follow the crowd now as they work.

  Shadows smear past Crow as he soars up and up and up, appearing in the middle webbed chamber faster than anyone, eyes scanning for threats, spotting two of them repairing the damage Vanguard had done earlier.

  Crow's mind focuses on its movements, wills the world around him to slow to a crawl, watching as the other members of vanguard emerge around him.

  Vulture smiles at him, winks, and moments before Crow can shift his wings to engage, terror rips him apart.

  His wings stop beating, sending him crashing into the webbing above him, cracking the nest and sending him colliding back down onto the tangle below. Crows lungs struggle for breath, the muscles in his body scream at him, sweat builds—he’s going to pass out.

  The terror coursing through his blood paralyzes him to the spot—Vultures fear aura.

  He grinds his teeth against the pressure, watching helplessly as Vulture tears into the paralyzed centipedes, their jaws locked in a silent scream as he passes through them like nothing, sonic booms cracking the nest, sending sputters of energy licking outwards with each new fissure.

  Ultraviolet light bubbles near Crow, he tries to will himself to teleport but his mind is locked in place, he can only watch as the knotted webbing he rests atop shatters, cracks, and erupts underneath him.

  Crow braces as much as his body will allow as the wind is knocked out of him. Starling dashes at him, wrapping him up in her arms and placing him down moments after the explosion of energy rocks the entire structure.

  His arm lances with pain, fire rippling across the surface of his skin, turning the veins black and the skin green-grey with rot, the shreds of his coat flapping in the sonic booms Vulture creates.

  “Stim!” Crow grinds out, his words almost inaudible for the tightness in his chest as the fear aura still cascades over them.

  Starling tears the stim from its spot in his pants pocket and slams it home in his chest, and watches with that permanent mask of apathy as it does nothing. The rot spreads, the corruption builds—he can’t heal from this.

  In one smooth motion she grabs his arm and severs it just above the elbow. Crow's eyes go wide as he watches his limb fly away from his body. She takes her own stim and sticks it into the stump, slamming her finger down on the button to close up the artery and seal off the open wound. It wouldn’t grow his arm back, but it will prevent him from bleeding out.

  Another sonic boom nearly sends crow flying from his position on the ground, only to be stopped as Starling tears off a piece of the solid tree-like webbing and drives it through Crow's trench coat, anchoring him there as she dashes back and grabs Sparrow moments before the corpse of a centipede crushes him entirely.

  Another explosion nearly kills Falcon. Starling grabs him and moves him away at the last second, that girl the only reason Falcon still breathes a second longer.

  The fear aura drops a second before another gout of energy sends shudders through the structure, blowing apart a collection of knotted webs out into the open air, allowing the wind and rain to suck inward and batter them.

  Energy builds, its glow rising to a blinding degree, and with a rush of air they are at the forest's edge, several miles from the structure as it is engulfed in a purple flame that seems to consume the very sky itself.

  Seconds later, the explosion's pressure wave passes through them, ending the rain around them for a few seconds, and sending them almost scattering into the forest until they drive their arms and legs into the dirt to avoid being carried away.

  Purple streaks of light from burning debris fall around them, crashing through nearby rooftops, ripping trees out of the ground and churning the earth as the remnants fall.

  “What the hell were you thinking?!” Crow shouts over the rain and destruction, each footfall cratering into the earth as he charges for Vulture.

  “Thinking I timed the pulses and didn’t want to waste any more time. Condor is right, time is of the essence.” Vulture yawns, and side steps a piece of burning tree as it lands nearby. “I'm sure you noticed that the pulses were increasing in frequency? The signals going out over these plants are building to something. Sparrow was starting to freeze again, you are low on feathers. Me dealing with them myself was much faster. Or were you too busy being the smartest person in Vanguard to notice all that?” Vulture cocks his head, meeting Crow with his chest, unmoving even as more flaming debris clatter around them.

  “Oh I noticed.” Crow bares down on Vulture, one arm gesturing to the writhing, pulsing, tangled mass carving jagged paths through the roots around them, heading deeper into the north woods. “Just like how I noticed we couldn’t fucking move while your fear aura is active. Starling is the only one who can and she had to waste two teleports saving our asses from the explosions you caused by going supersonic in that space. I also notice the big fucking pillar of purple fire, alerting the host anomaly that we just blew it’s operation to shit. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of timing the god damn pulses to hide our presence doesn't it?”

  Crow struggles to keep his voice down, but the rage building inside of him at Vulture's hard eyes behind that white mask sends him into a frenzy. The noise already threatens to consume him, as it tries to bring him down from the edge—tries to make sure he doesn’t hurt his teammate—but after that stunt no small part of Crow feels this team will be better off without the psycho.

  Vulture narrows his eyes and spares a glance behind them, watching the ultraviolet flame continue to rise into the night sky.

  “Yeah, that's what I thought, or were you too busy being the biggest badass in vanguard you forgot that part?”

  “You are both right, we didn’t have time. Vulture was a moron for signaling our presence, but it would have cost us a lot more resources to try and kill them all ourselves, and it would have blown without them repairing the structure regardless,” Falcon tries as he approaches. “But fighting about it now does nothing, we need to move. We need to extract, or we are going to get ourselves killed if we continue like this.” He motions towards Crow’s one arm, and Sparrow's still shaking body, evidently still not recovered from destroying the tablet. “The target anomaly knows we are here sooner than we would have liked, we are hurt, Star is low on teleports, we need to reconsider.”

  “I agree…” Sparrow offers from the sidelines.

  “Yeah? You agree? Good for you,” Vulture mocks, not moving from his spot in front of Crow. “Call it, oh valiant leader, tell James we need to extract and see what happens.”

  Crow bites down on his lip, the noise bubbling up at the back of his mind.

  “That's what I thought, now let's finish things up here so I don’t have to hear your voice for the rest of the day.” Vulture pats Crow on the mask, but Crow grabs hold of his hand before he can peel it away.

  The noise assaults Crow from every angle, making his skin burn with it, his ears erupt with it, his skull filling with the pressure.

  “Oh?” Vulture cocks his head, and in an instant the noise dies, replaced with that familiar cold terror as Vulture's fear aura radiates from him, consuming everything around him.

  Everyone but Starling is affected yet again, their bodies frozen in place as the fear aura tears through their ranks like a virus, infecting their minds, forcing their fight or flight to seize up entirely as the promise of death bears down on them harder than the rain, harder than the still burning fragments of twisted web.

  “You’re amusing, Crow. Don’t get me wrong, I love your insight, but don’t ever forget who’s on top, yeah?” Vulture's talloned fingers tap into Crow's mask, carving a groove across one of the eye holes.

  “Vulture.” Starling's hand comes to rest on Vulture's shoulder, pulling his attention away from Crow. “We need to move.”

  “Hmmm” He holds on to the aura for a little while longer, Crow watching as the noise makes Vulture's eye twitch, though he still fights through it, making sure to prove his point. “Fine, only because I trust your judgement more.”

  The aura drops, and Crow collapses to the ground, lungs desperate for air, as do the other members of Vanguard.

  “Are we done?” Falcon gasps, eyes turned to the forest.

  “Are we?” Vulture asks, sparing a glance at Crow, finally able to stand despite his entire body shuddering with a mix of terror and rage alike.

  “We are…” He gasps, breath hard in his chest.

  “Good. Then let's move,” Vulture claps, and saunters off into the north woods.