Jon strode through the metallic corridor, following behind Thomas. The interior of the Science Citadel was every bit as brilliant and opulent as the exterior. Every way he looked he could see glowing machines and alien mechanisms whose purposes he could barely hazard a guess at.

  “I’ve been following this case, you know. At least, from what’s publicly available. Damn horrible thing,” Doctor Trinity said, giving a small shake of his head. “They had a candlelit vigil for that poor girl only the other night. Awful stuff.”

  “I imagine every mask is keeping tabs on this,” Jon replied. Already he knew many of the villains in Lord’s Port had come forth to deny any involvement in the incident. They knew full well that the heroes would be out for blood against any villain foolish enough to be boastful.

  It was a two way street, of course. If any hero were to kill a supervillain, the Guild would put out a hit and cause mass havoc.

  “Masks?” Thomas chuckled. “The Triad are one of the only heroes who don’t hide their identities, you know,” he said. A pair of metal doors slid aside at their approach, revealing a lab filled to the brim with a myriad of massive machines. And an assortment of strange experiments.

  Jon beheld, through a pain of glass, a pair of mechanical arms 3D-printing a crystalline replica of the Venus De Milo. Elsewhere he spotted a group of Thomas’ robots carrying a great glass tube, filled with pulsating black and red energy that swirled like a hyperactive lava lamp. Through another window he could glimpse a pool of liquid metal rising to life, forming into a silvery life-sized giraffe. Thomas made no comment on any of these, instead pressing to the far end of the lab. A screen dominated the far wall, joined to a bank of computers.

  “Maybe. Still, it’s the commonly used term for heroes.” His gaze became affixed to the screen, one hand resting in the pocket of his blazer. “So. Our alien trouble?”

  “Of course. I actually did study the anomalous creature from a few years back. I tend to be given samples of such oddities whenever they crop up. It’s a hobby, of sorts. Like butterfly collecting.” He offered Jon a warm smile, and for a moment he looked as if he had walked straight out of a Rockwell painting. “Needless to say it was a fascinating lifeform.” He flicked a switch, and the monitor flashed to life.

  It depicted shaky camera footage of the creature in question, shrieking and thrashing about, destroying cars and uprooting swathes of asphalt. Lady Knight positioned herself in front of a group of panicking pedestrians. Sunlight gleamed on the silvery plates of her power armour, while an energy shield of shimmering blue plasma sprouted from her arm to block a series of incoming swipes.

  “Strong creature,” Thomas sad. He accelerated the footage, highlighting an instance of the strange grey beast back handing Lady Knight into a building with enough force to flatten it and its neighbouring structures. “They called it the Shambler. Not the name I would have chosen, but the right tends to go to the first person on the scene.”

  Sapphire Warlock flew above the Shambler, the creature’s furrowed flesh twisting and straining as it unleashed a truly horrid shriek. Strands of blue light flew from Warlock’s outstretched hands, forming into luminous chains of hardlight that locked firmly around the Shambler’s legs. It struggled and strained, helpless as Lady Knight swept toward it.

  The person recording the battle recoiled just as Lady Knight’s vibro-blade, the ebony edge shaving deep into the undulating mass.

  “Everyone was quick to write it off as an Anomalous Zone creature, but I knew full well that that wasn’t the case. I’ve done autopsies on plenty of kaiju, and this thing was unlike even the smallest runt.”

  The doors slid open again, catching the attention of both men. The other members of the Triad made their way inside, adorned in attire that matched Doctor Trinity. His wife, Stephanie Teller, was a tall and lean woman with mocha skin and flowing tresses of raven hair that framed her pretty face. Her brother, Jack Graves, loomed two heads taller than her and his costume did little to hide his musculature.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  When the Triad first gained their alterhuman powers, his body had been morphed into a hulking figure halfway between man and dragon. These days, when not in a fight, he wore a great suppressor cuff on his arm that dampened his powers enough for him to keep a human appearance.

  “Well shit, I didn’t know it was movie night,” Jack said, grinning. It highlighted how damn large and square-cut his jaw was.

  “And with a special guest too,” Stephanie said, tittering.

  “Dragon,” he said, nodding at Jack. “And Lady Tempest. Nice to meet you both.”

  Stephanie offered him a charming smile. The three of them were deep in their forties now, but none looked a day over thirty. One of the benefits of alterhuman physiology that wasn’t spoken about as often. “Well, the Triad pride ourselves as problem solvers.” As she spoke, sparks of light shone around the edges of her eyes. A strange contraption hummed to life at her mental command, spraying steaming coffee from a nozzle into a nearby cup. “Care for a drink?”

  “No, thank yo-”

  Tempest vanished in a puff of purple smoke, appearing beside the freshly poured cup in that same instant. “A pity. We grow our own beans down in the terraforming lab. Quite fantastic, if you don’t mind me bragging.”

  “Oh yeah, that thing,” Jack said, focusing his gaze on it. Even with his powers suppressed, his eyes were two serpentine slits that blazed with orange light. “Ugly sonofabitch, ain’t he?”

  “And yet quite a fascinating lifeform, from what I was able to gather before the sample decayed entirely. It was a blend of machine and organic tissue.” Doctor Trinity flicked another switch, bringing up an image on screen. DNA sample, similar to what Peel had shown in his own lab.

  “A cyborg?” Jon asked. “Doesn’t look mechanical to me. Neither did the other creatures I’ve seen.”

  “Cyborg perhaps calls to mind a... certain mental image. Human bodies augmented by obvious, mechanical prostheses,” said Thomas.

  Stephanie leaned against a counter, sipping her coffee. “In this case, the mechanical components are nanoscopic in nature. Colonies of tiny machines suffused within the flesh. They further augment the host’s strength and durability, and provide an assortment of other abilities.” Another image appeared on the monitor, depicting a 3D model of a silver robot shaped like a tick.

  Like that suicide bombing trick, Jon thought. Might also be what causes them to decay so rapidly after they die.

  “Exactly, my love,” Thomas said, flashing Stephanie a warm smile. “Couldn’t have phrased it better myself.”

  “Oh I’m sure you could have, dear.”

  Jon rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. “So,” he hastily said, hoping to get things back on track. “You’re sure this is alien in origin? This... DNA, this technology?”

  “It’s a strong possibility,” Thomas admitted, shrugging. “The people who could artificially create genetic structures like this, and colonies of refined nanomachines? There aren’t many on Earth.”

  “Guild creeps might have the ability, if they pool their smart guys together,” Jack said. He motioned to the screen with a burly hand. “You want my bet though? Seems like somethin’ Encounterists would do.”

  That gave him pause. “Encounterists? You think a gang of religious cult whackjobs could make something like that?”

  “Well...” Stephanie lazily swirled her coffee. “It’s not impossible. People often underestimate the resources they have. They recruited Mech Maker and Fleshcraft a few years ago, after all.”

  Thomas considered this, slowly stroking his chin. “But to what end? General chaos and dissaray? The Encounterists have been a bit rudderless over the past while, ever since the Apostle was taken into ANVIL custody. Still, if you don’t believe we’re dealing with some anomalous alien threat, I suppose it’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

  Jon grunted. ANVIL, and every other intelligence agency in the country, kept their ear close to the ground when it came to the Encounterists. They were terrorists, driven by ideology as opposed to greed, like the Guild or the Lee Clan. Could they be making these attacks under the radar?

  He supposed it was more feasible than an alien invasion.

  “We will, of course, study this sample as best we can, and we’ll monitor our space probes with greater scrutiny and see if we can find anything more concrete on either end of our hunches,” said Thomas, offering Jon another smile.

  “And anyone causing trouble here, no matter where they’re from, is gettin’ a thrashing.” Jack flashed him a toothy grin. He was a man who loved a fight, even if he was also considered an exceptional scientist.

  “Well, if you find anything, ANVIL will be greatly appreciative and compensate you proper-” There was a buzz in his pocket. “Scuse me for a moment.”

  The Triad glanced aside respectfully as Jon fished his phone into view. A call from Anya, on a secure signal. He had barely answered the call when Anya blurted out “We’ve got a serious situation here, Director?”

  Jon winced. Girl was loud when she wanted to be. “Take a breath and tell me what the problem is.”

  “It’s... the warning buoys from the Pacific Anomalous Zone started pinging a while back, but the target they detected wasn’t put off by the usual deterrents. Sir, there’s-” she hesitated, taking a harsh breath, “there’s a kaiju getting ready to make landfall in California!”