The Reckoning

[Gifted]

The screen flickered and showed a thumbs-up emoticon.
"So... do we think Bug just saved our lives?" Joan asked as she followed. That was a little weird.

[Raven]

"That's what he said," Cyrus said. "And we're not dead, so."

[Gifted]

"That's.... weird." Joan acknowledged.

[Raven]

"Yeah. I still can't get over working with them."

[Gifted]

"Yeah, I don't like it either, but we need them and it looks like they need us, or he would have let us die."

[Raven]

"I know," Cyrus said. "Anyway, the scene should be right up here."

[Gifted]

Flare was already there when they got there, walking amongst the destruction. It appeared Nightmare had been playing with his telekinesis again, and the clash of his and Techno's power had annihilated the area around them. Among the shrapnel several Enforcement soldier lay dead, clearly killed much more deliberately than Liam's careless throws last time. Many of their weapons were deliberately snapped in half. Flare was examining the bodies of these Enforcers, completely ignoring the dead Techno. "You lot are late." She said without looking up. She somehow already knew they were there despite clearly having not seen them.

[Raven]

"Yes, well, we were on the other side of town."

[Gifted]

"I'm aware." Flare responded. She looked over the bodies. "I shouldn't have bothered sending them. Waste of resources. Techno wasn't worth the loss of troops I'm going to need later. Still, we got some valuable intel from them, so it wasn't a total loss."

[Raven]

"And what was that?" Cyrus asked.

[Gifted]

"You don't see it?" Flare scoffed. "Come here." She waved them over.
Joan hesitantly approached to see what Flare was looking at as Flare bent down and picked up one of the broken weapons. "I'd have thought you pair of you would notice immediately, especially little miss planner extraordinaire over here."
Joan rolled her eyes. "I haven't done that sort of thing in a while, Flare."
"Huh. Well, you were good at it anyway. Your plans were great. Easy to follow. I had someone pull your last one the other day. It was beautiful."
Joan froze. "What?" She said sharply.
"Oh yeah, we even managed to hit Starlight's little helper in all the commotion. It was excellent."
"There's no way." Joan protested. "The plan I left was only half finished! It wasn't ready to be used!"
"Yeah, but my people got where you were going with it. I had some experts finish it themselves." Flare had a nasty grin on her face, while Joan was horrified. How many people was that she'd killed? Was there even anything left of Starlight's compound after that? All those people...

[Raven]

While Joan was distracted, however, Cyrus had seen the compound the day of the attack and wasn't concerned. "We have bigger concerns than Starlight right now. Are those broken in half?" He crouched down to look at the weapons scattered on the ground. "How did he do that?"

[Gifted]

"They are." Flare shifted back into what they were supposed to be focused on as if absolutely nothing had happened, leaving Joan to stew. "How - well, if his telekinesis is strong enough it may not have been hard. Why, is the better question. As he's quite effectively demonstrated, the boys bulletproof. Yet he really doesn't seem to like guns..."

[Raven]

"We noticed that as well when he attacked us. He became extremely agitated when I shot at him. We thought perhaps it might be a psychological thing he'll grow out of," Cyrus said. "Remnant of not wanting to be shot when he was human."

[Gifted]

"That's interesting, but then answer me this; how come this didn't happen to the weapons of the men we sent to help Mist?" Flare pointed out. "He's getting more aggressive towards weaponry, not less."