Cosmic yawned. They’d been on this recruiting run since the early morning and she was already sick of it. Nomad had to keep stopping to get out and sit by the van to try and get a sense of which direction the potentials were in. They couldn’t easily submerge Nomad in a parking lot so the best they could manage was putting her arm in a bucket of water which only sort of helped.

  Still Nomad’s loose directions were better than spending the whole day driving around randomly and hoping they got lucky. Knowing where the potentials were was less than half the battle though, they needed a method to approach them and an angle to convince them to join. It wasn’t as easy as it should be.

  Nomad was doing everything she could, she’d transformed into her magical girl form, which looked like an old spanish sea captain. Cosmic was glad normal people couldn’t see her. She would be drawing way too much attention in that outfit.

  Nomad stirred suddenly. “Whaaaa?”

  “What’s up?” Cosmic yawned again stretching her jaw and wandering over toward Nomad.

  “GET DOWN!” Nomad shouted a last second warning as a blade cut through near the space Cosmic Anchor had been standing. Cosmic’s body exploded into light as she transformed on pure instinct.

  She barely managed to duck out of the way before a murderous figure emerged from nothing. The shadow swiped again at Cosmic Anchor but the liquid metal swirling around her large weapon arm deflected the blow as it solidified. Still the power behind the strike sent Cosmic recoiling slightly. An arrow shot past Cosmic’s head and headed right for the shadow’s neck. It weaved around to dodge but it nicked the creature's arm all the same.

  Silvered knocked another arrow but Cosmic raised her weapon arm to stop her as the figure snatched up Nomad and pulled her away from the others.

  “Stop!” Cosmic order. The shadows blade was held an inch from Nomad’s throat.

  “Why…” The figure spat. “Why now?”

  Cosmic wiggled her fingers and the metal around her arm swirled back into channels that flowed up and down it. The familiar black armor sent a chill down her spine as a blazing blue katar blade poked at Nomad’s quavering neck.

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  “Fatal Range….” Cosmic stared dumbfounded.

  “WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE??” Fatal snarled, black blood gushing from the cut on her arm.

  “We were following a candidate in the area…” Cosmic replied, trying to remain calm. ”Up until now we were all convinced you were dead.” Cosmic dismissed her transformation as well; her body became shorter and her sailor suit returned to the casual streetwear she’d put on that morning. Cosmic put her arms in a calming gesture.“This doesn’t have to end badly. If you just let Nomad go, I’ll speak on your behalf when we bring you to True Anchor.”

  “Your word?” Fatal hissed. “‘You should just go kill yourself dyke’. Those were YOUR words, Cosmic. Of all of you bitches, you are the one who hated me the most. Why the FUCK would I ever take you at your word?” Fatal’s visor might have hid the fury in her eyes but the malice was plain on her clenched fangs.

  “I know. And I am truly ashamed of how I treated you in the past. But, that has no bearing on the here and now.” Cosmic stood still and confident, not backing down but not presenting a threat either.

  “Doesn’t it?” Fatal snapped. “You want to drag me to a cell at the bottom of the ocean for a crime you all made up! I’m not going to play along with your stupid superhero game anymore!” Fatal waved an arm around her. ”This part of the city is my territory, all the potentials here are under my protection! If I catch any of your kind around here again I will not let them leave.”

  Fatal’s blade retracted and in one swift motion and Nomad tumbled forward as Fatal blinked out of existence as quickly as she appeared.

  Nomad cried out in pain, began coughing and holding her eyes. “Her speech was a distraction! GAAAAAAACK! She sprayed me with something!”

  Silvered put a hand on Cosmic’s shoulder. “We should go.”

  “Nomad, where is she?” Cosmic started to smell something strong as she approached Nomad.

  “I don’t fucking know! Too much pain, I can't focus!” Nomad clutched at her eyes and backed away as her transformation broke with the accompanying flash of light.

  Cosmic helped splash water from the bucket on Nomads face as she knelt down beside it looking ill.. “Pepper spray. That was clever. Well.. at least we know what we’re dealing with now.” Inflicting pain was one of the easiest ways to disable a magical girl.

  “No fucking shit?!?” Nomad screeched. “I told you I didn’t wanna come!”