"I'll go after her," Hugo said. "Take the guy down quick before we get into any trouble."

"Alright. If we can't get there, you two will have to take him out, so we'll at least try to distract him by going after him."

"I'll blow his brains out if we can find him," Hugo said. "Good luck." He ran towards the opposite end of the roof and leapt off. With a burst of his jump jets and a fling of his grapple, he was on the move.

***

Meanwhile, Matt pulled out the Firebird again. "Okay. Let's try this again. You drive, Alasea. We'll sit in the back and hope to God nothing goes wrong."

"Well, let's see if we can get through this wall," R.D. said, looking back over at the barrier. He spread his legs and thrust his right arm out, hand open. The black glove creaked as the fabric stretched as R.D. closed his hand into a fist, one finger at a time.

A prismatic aura of light exploded around him, and chunks of the rooftop and the barrier disappeared, as if something took large bites of them. R.D. drew the material towards him, forming the Shell Bullet around his arm.

===

"You sure know how to instill a girl with confidence," Alasea commented wryly, getting into the front seat again. She turned on the engine. "You two ready back there?"

===

Ileyna was sure that she was catching the attention of plenty of people down below--she didn't care, though. Matt was right, they didn't have the time to waste.

She left a blue trail of light as she flew, darting around buildings while staying beneath the rooftop levels. It wouldn't do to have the Stand user actually see her coming.

Matt buckled his seatbelt, hoping for the first time in a while that it was tight enough. When Helena was snug, he said, "Floor it."

Alasea kept her reservations and went pushed down on the gas, but didn't put it to the floor as requested--no need to ask to get killed, after all. "You can still feel her energy, right? That light trail she left is already starting to fade."

"Yeah," Matt said. "Just keep on going straight."

He stole a glance at Helena's forehead. Two marks gone, two more to go. Same for him as well. Let's just hope this bad luck stuff was lethal to normal humans. With their powers, they could survive some monster stuff. But what was going to happen next?

As they approached a sewer cap, it suddenly burst into the sky, propelled by a very strong, very familiar silver substance.

"...aw, SHIT!" Matt swore.

With a gasp, Alasea swerved the Firebird around the exploding geyser of... whatever that was. "What's going on!?" she demanded, halting the car.

"Gun it!" Matt snapped. "NOW!"

Helena screamed as the mass splashed over the Firebird and tore through the cracked windshield with silvery spikes.

There was a horrible screeching noise as Alasea slammed her foot against the acceleration pad, causing the Firebird to burn rubber before it peeled out. The Daughter of Dawn let out a surprised shriek as the fluid smashed into the windshield and attacked.

"Get off!" she shouted, lashing out with her power. The flows of energy cut through the cracks in the windshield, trying to rupture the mass on the car.

The blow exploded the mass to both sides of the Firebird, and it charged through.

Matt seized Helena by the wrist. "Is one of the marks gone?!"

"What WAS that?" she shouted, but when Matt violently jabbed at his forehead, she said, "Yes! Yes, it's gone!"

"Good!" Releasing her arm, Matt glanced over his shoulder, through the rear window. "That thing's called the Flux. It's a shapeshifter monster that I've fought with R.D.. I thought it was dead, but I guess I'm...well, just unlucky."

Alasea wove a barrier around the car into existence. "How'd you kill it last time?!" she demanded, taking a quick peek at the mirrors to see if it was pursuing them still.

"Ileyna removed the Essence," Matt said. "Other than that, I don't think there's a way to kill it."

"Then we have to lead it to Ileyna and catch up with her!" Helena said. "Go faster, Alasea!"

Matt squinted his eyes. In the distance, the silver mass had reformed, and was now rushing down the street at them in hot pursuit. "I second the motion, Alasea! Go! Go! Go!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" Alasea cried, pushing down even harder on the gas pedal in a futile effort to get the car going faster. "Matt, try to slow it down or something!"

He had a good idea. Matt smashed away the rear window with one blow of his fist-the car was ruined anyway, so who gave a shit anymore? He summoned his armor and generated a ball of flame. "Helena, can you make a ball of fire that expands on command?"

Helena formed her claws and charged up her own orb. "Yeah!"

"On my signal, toss one. On my next signal, expand it as quickly as you can. Like an explosion." Matt leaned back, the wind slicing through his air, and he reared back his little bomb. "Ready?"

As the Flux charged up, firing a group of spears that narrowly punctured the road and avoided the car, Helena took her position. "Ready!"

"NOW!" They flung their balls of flame at the Flux, and right as it crossed over them, Matt shouted again. "NOW!"

The orbs exploded outwards, blowing apart the monster in all directions with a splatter. Matt and Helena both whooped in victory. With Matt it was expected, but Helena? That's new.

Alasea yelped as the spears came down, seeing them in the rear-view mirror, but luckily they didn't hit the Firebird.

As Matt and Helena attacked, she let out a nervous-sounding giggle. She spared a glance back at her friends. "Hope you're not turning into Matt, Helena," she said.

Helena laughed a bit. "Hey, I'm not gonna say it wasn't fun to do that."

"Well, let's get out of here before another one of those things show up," Alasea said. "We lost the trail, Matt, so you'll need to tell me where to go."

Matt looked back again. "...we're not out of the woods just yet, guys!" True to the statement, the Flux was reforming, still flying towards them. Now a skeletal head rose and shaped from the mass, its maw open in a challenge.

Helena leaned an arm out the gap in the window and fired a small blast, which carved through one of the Flux's empty eye sockets to no effect. "It didn't work!"

"Keep shooting!" Now the Flux was weaving, avoiding their fiery shots. A limb burst from the side of the mass, and as it formed a massive knife, sunlight briefly glistened on its blade. What the hell was it doing?

Volent joined the group a few seconds later. Giro looked over everyone to be sure they were there. He came to a black door and put a hand on it.

"Outside." Giro responded blandly as he opened the door and a gray light glowed within the black tunnels. Outside was a large flat land of gravel and rocks. They were still in the Gray Mountains, but near the edge of Dargor's realm. There in the large flat of land were several dozen carriages with Riders as the coaches. Dargor's steed came around the bend just then as Giro and Volent stepped out. Dargor stopped before the door.

"Sire!" They exclaimed in unison.

"You made it, just in time. We're getting ready to leave." Dargor said grimly.

"Tell me if that thing starts to charge!" Alasea shouted back at her friends as she continued her perilous drive.

===England===

It was a few hours of uneventful travel before Aram and X had arrived at a coastal city. As they stood on a hill looking over the place, Aram felt a bit of unease at the sight of the unusual buildings. The world had changed too much on him.

"Well, let's go find us a ship," he said, setting off down the hill towards the town, which looked deserted.

===Borderlands, The Grey Mountains===

Relayia had to shield her eyes as she came out of the darkness of the tunnel, but they quickly adjusted to the light and she was able to see soon. "If you would like, Lord Dargor, we can house your people in my father's weyr for the time being. It has more than enough room for your people to live in it comfortably."

Quite suddenly, over the horizon, a pair of dark shapes were closing in on group of carriages.

Seril looked over at them, letting her superior eyesight to identify the shapes. "Jagan and Asocura have returned... they look injured."

"Very well, anywhere is better than here." Dargor agreed, "Once out of danger we can-" Dargor cut himself off when the figures came upon the horizon. It was the two dragons. Indeed, they seemed injured, flying only with only some of the vigor as before. That stranger...they must have been his targets, or at least stood in the way of his target. They would see.

The two Bronze Dragons landed, and most of the people's eyes widened when they saw the mangled limb of Jagan's, the arm missing from the elbow down, the flesh and meat of the severed arm burnt to a crisp, a number of puncture wounds surrounding, each one bleeding profusely.

"What happened?" Relayia asked sharply, moving over to the wounded dragon. Seril noted that Asocura sported a wound across her stomach, but it was far less serious than Jagan's, and already cauterized by the Bronze Dragon.

"A human in black, with silver hair attacked us," Jagan growled, panting slightly. The claws at the joints of his wings were pressed into the ground to help support himself, as his damaged arm was held favorably. "It was after Asocura and I, hoping to take our hides, probably to make armor. He managed to cut off my arm before I escaped."

"Is he following us?" Seril asked, looking over at him. He shook his head.

"No. He seems to be aware of our biology and was more concerned with preparing his trophy."

"We'll be headed to my father's weyr," Relayia said. "There, we can keep the people of the Gray Mountains safe, and Jagan and Asocura's wounds can be treated. Seril, please prepare a dimensional transport."

"Yes, your Majesty," said the transformed Blue Dragon. She walked some ways away from the group, between herself and the Riders and their carriages. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, as if in prayer, as she clasped her hands together. Immediately, a gentle wind of unknown origin blew about her, ruffling her blue hair and her skirt, and a magic circle expanded out around her feet as she began to chant.

Knowing that preparing a dimensional transport strong enough to relay all of them, Relayia then turned to Jagan once more, looking apologetic. "Jagan, I hate to ask this of you, what with what pain you're in, but--"

"There is no need to apologize, your Majesty," he rumbled, cutting her off. "A wound such as this won't bother me very much. Ask what you will of this one."

Relayia smiled. "After we've applied a Gan salve to your arm, we'll need to access your memories. It is essential that the Tetrarchs study this new threat while we prepare for the next step in our war."

"Of course, your Majesty."