Content Warning (see in-line comments for details)

---

09 SEP 33AE

Los Angeles, California

From where they were perched on the rooftop of the two-story building across the street, it looked like any ordinary desolate warehouse in the middle of LA's industrial district. But Camilla knew looks could be deceiving, so she did her due diligence and infused her energy with the building's structure, then with the air within. A quick scan for heat sources and large cell-based bodies showed there was no one inside, but that only told the story of what was above ground.

"Hostiles?" Lee's voice asked quietly from behind her.

"None yet," Camilla replied. "Checking underground now."

She infused her energy with the floor of the warehouse, then to the atmosphere beneath it. After checking that the basement floor was empty, Camilla tried to go deeper, but all that was left was solid concrete and dirt.

"Nothing in the two floors above ground, nor in the one floor underground," Camilla reported to Lee.

"Damnit," Lee muttered, then spoke on her comms. "Perez, Olomana, Pala, building is clear, but do a sweep for good measure."

"Roger," Perez's voice replied, and Camilla spotted the three rushing in the warehouse from their hideout around the corner of an adjacent building.

Camilla had kept her energy in the warehouse and was monitoring the situation when Lee spoke up again.

"What are you thinking, Wyatt?" she asked.

Lee had been asking Camilla that question a lot lately, ever since they returned from Hawaii and were assigned to Exodos-related cases just like everyone else. Camilla didn't know what Lee's motives were, but she always answered the question truthfully regardless.

"If this was the only false lead we've gotten, I'd think it was just a prank or someone trying to make money for calling into the hotline," Camilla said. "But not only is this the dozenth false tip we've gotten today, but every single one has been called in perfectly timed so that we're running to the opposite sides of the city. I don't know if the other squads are having the same issues, but I think we're getting intentionally worn out."

Lee only looked at Camilla for a few seconds before nodding.

"I agree with your analysis," she said. "This works out too well for it to be a coincidence."

There was a brief pause, and then Lee continued.

"What would you recommend we do?" Lee asked.

"I would follow whatever the Org tells us to do," Camilla said automatically.

"And if they weren't around?" Lee added. "If you were the highest ranking person available? Hypothetically, of course."

As confused as Camilla felt, she did her best to keep her true feelings from showing on her face. For all she knew, Lee was testing her reaction on behalf of the Org upper management, and under no circumstances could Camilla fail.

"I would send the minimal number of personnel out to respond to the reports, and have them be restricted to specific neighborhoods," Camilla responded after a brief pause. "Everyone else would remain on standby at Base until a legitimate report comes in, or if the roving squads need a shift change. If the reports don't mention ongoing violent crimes, it's unlikely that the criminals would suddenly start acting up before our people arrive.

"Even if one of them turned out to be true," Camilla continued. "There would be enough personnel in the vicinity to provide backup long enough for more reinforcements to arrive. While sending everyone everywhere all at once is more efficient in the short term, like we're doing now, if an attack were to happen we wouldn't be ready to respond."

Her answer was initially met by silence, then by a thoughtful hum from Lee. In other words, Camilla had no idea if what she said was right or wrong.

At that moment, there was a buzz of static in their comms, and Perez's voice sounded on their earpieces.

"Captain, Perez," he said. "We have visual confirmation that the building is clear."

"Roger," Lee acknowledged. "Return to street."

Just as Camilla and Lee jumped down from the rooftop to the street level below, Lee's phone rang. She stepped away to answer it, leaving Camilla to wait for the rest of the squad. While Mack looked relieved as he emerged from the warehouse, Pala seemed nervous and Perez was visibly irritated.

"What the hell is this shit," Perez grumbled. He kicked the back of an abandoned car parked on the side of the road, and the rear bumper flew off and clattered noisily on the sidewalk. "It's a goddamn waste of our time."

Before he could complain anymore, Lee returned, her expression more serious than it was a minute ago.

"What's up, Cap?" Mack asked, trying to diffuse the tension with his lighthearted tone.

"There's been another attack," Lee announced somberly, and they all sobered up at once. "The San Diego base was attacked approximately seven minutes ago. We've been ordered to deploy from Base, time now. Let's move."

As the others immediately rushed back to the LUV they arrived in, Camilla hesitated. She could easily go along with her orders and nothing more, but that didn't feel right. It wouldn't be enough, not by a long shot, and she could do more. She wanted to do more.

"Captain!" Camilla said, and waited until she was sure she had Lee's attention. "It would take us almost fifteen minutes to get back to Base, then at least another fifteen to fly to San Diego. We'll get there thirty minutes too late to do any good."

Judging by the way Lee's jaw shifted, she agreed but couldn't say so. "Those are our orders, Wyatt. Do you have a better idea?"

"I do, actually," Camilla said. "Captain, let me fly ahead. At my top speed, I can get there in just over ten minutes, and I'll still have enough energy to help them out."

When Lee hesitated to give permission, Camilla pleaded. "Captain, please. You said you trusted that I would make the best decision for our squad and our country. Were you lying?"

Lee looked her directly in the eyes. "No, I wasn't." She glanced at the rest of the squad, ready to head out, then back to Camilla, sighing. "Look, Wyatt, I don't know what you'll be flying into, and I can't guarantee you'll have backup until we get there."

Camilla nodded. "Yes, ma'am, I understand."

Lee returned her nod. "Alright then, Officer Wyatt, permission granted. And watch your back."

"Yes, ma'am."

And with a powerful leap into the air, Camilla was off.

As she steadily approached cruising altitude, she pressed a small button on the inside of her uniform's high-standing collar, deploying the collapsible helmet that was stored inside. Once she heard the helmet lock click, she accelerated, reaching her top speed in a matter of seconds.

Still, Camilla knew she could go faster, even if she'd never done it before. She had to.

Hitomi once said it was theoretically possible for metas to reach speeds that rivaled military fighter jets, given that the meta in question also had the necessary skill set. In this case, not only would they need to be air manipulators, but they would also need to be able to maintain the necessary blood flow throughout their body, plus either strengthen their body to withstand the velocity, or be able to continuously heal themselves from the injuries sustained from the strain. The only setback was that no one ever had both cell and matter manipulation abilities, nor a high enough energy capacity to reach such high speeds.

No one, she said, except Camilla.

Determined, Camilla focused on activating her regeneration abilities. At first, nothing happened. She thought back to the times when she healed Elsie, and the feeling of wanting nothing more than to take away her pain and suffering, but still nothing happened. Even if she could heal others, she still couldn't heal herself.

Think about yourself too, Elsie had told her.

So, with Elsie's voice resonating in her mind, she did exactly that.

For a while, nothing happened, but Camilla stubbornly kept trying. She thought about her past, and how she had always wanted to be free. She thought about the present, and how she was finally getting the chance to do a mission her way and under her conditions. And she thought about a future, and the sliver of hope she had for it that she thought was long gone.

Suddenly, Camilla was engulfed by an indescribable warmth, and she could see a faint glow reflecting off the inside of her helmet. Gradually, she felt more and more energized, her heart rate steadily increased, and her body felt as if she weighed nothing at all.

She began to accelerate even more, reaching what had to be greater than ten g's in a matter of moments. Seconds later, she was traveling faster than she ever had before, and less than five minutes later, she could see San Diego in the distance, and a thirty-story building on fire.

The San Diego base looked like how the Barracks did after it was attacked, only much, much worse. A section of the upper half of the building was gone, reduced to a mountain of rubble on the ground below. The rest of the building was on fire and crumbling apart piece by piece. Around what was still standing were several groups of guardians, both in the air and on land, fighting off attacks from metas who had to have been Exodos.

It was the first time Camilla had seen the hostiles in person, since all of their previous battles were fought at a distance, but they didn't look too different from guardians. As she neared, the biggest differences were that their uniforms included more tactical gear and were a dark green camouflage print instead of the Org's customary black, and each of their members wore helmets that concealed their faces. And, in this situation, there was one more noticeable difference between the guardians and Exodos metas: Exodos was winning.

So without wasting another moment, Camilla scanned the battlefield for the guardians that were struggling the most and targeted their opponents as she rapidly descended.

It seemed to take hours before the tide of the battle began to favor the guardians, but Camilla knew in reality that only a few minutes passed. While most of Exodos had fled as soon as the battle began to turn against them, there were a few that were defeated and were subsequently hauled away for questioning. Camilla made sure that the last remaining hostiles were securely in the custody of the appropriate Org guardians before she let herself survey the damage on the base.

At first glance, it looked like a full-on war had been waged. Even with her second and third glances, when she expected the scene to change with familiarity, the damage still looked as terrible and irreversible and couldn't possibly be reality. The rest of the upper half of the base had collapsed in the midst of the fighting, leaving the remaining structure a smoldering block of concrete.

On the ground, the base was surrounded by a ring of rubble, and the debris in some sections were piled up five stories. It was in these mountains that the remaining guardians were scattered around, digging through the rubble by hand since their energy had long been depleted. Scattered across the lawn, medics were tending to the wounded or hauling them off to one of two tents: one tent was white and identifiable by large red crosses; the other tent was black.

Camilla's gaze froze on this scene, unable to comprehend exactly what was going on and unable to pull her eyes away from it all.

Her daze was only broken by the sight of one of the tallest peaks of rubble shifting dangerously, and her instincts immediately snapped her back into action.

Camilla flew towards the rubble as fast as she could, extending her energy out into the space in front of her. When her energy fused into the toppling peak, it felt a lot heavier than it looked, or maybe Camilla was just that low on power. Regardless, she ignored that in favor of quickly stabilizing the structure until she got closer. Once she got her hands physically on the debris, she lifted the unstable section and set it gently on a clear patch of the lawn below.

"T-thanks..." a small voice said, and Camilla looked around the rubble mountain for the source of the noise. Eventually she spotted a young man sitting in the debris, his face covered in a mixture of dust, blood, and tears. He was wearing a slightly tattered guardian uniform without any indication of rank on his chest or shoulders, nor did it have his name.

"No problem," Camilla said, and pulled him to his feet. "Did you need help?"

The man—or boy, more like—sniffed once and wiped his face with the back of his sleeve.

"My team..." he began, then sniffed again. "We were just in the area when they attacked and we wanted to help, but then—"

Tears began to fill his eyes again, and his mouth hung open with no sound coming out.

"Hey," Camilla said, holding onto his shoulders and looking him right in the eyes. "Hey, look at me." She waited until his gaze focused on her before continuing. "What's your name?"

It took a few seconds before the boy could finally answer. "Finn. I mean, Finn Caffrey, seventh year. Ma'am."

His answer made Camilla instantly freeze. She didn't care about formalities, but what she did care about was that there was a nineteen year-old Academy student out in what was essentially a warzone.

"Okay, Finn," she replied, trying to contain her fury. "I'm Camilla. Now, your teammates are your classmates?" Once Finn nodded, she continued. "And what about your team leader? Where are they?"

Finn sniffed again and pointed behind Camilla with a shaky hand. Only when she turned did she realize he was pointing to the black tent.

"Alright," Camilla said after too long of a pause. In that amount of time, Finn's breath began to shorten, and Camilla squeezed his shoulders tightly. "Hey, Finn, listen to me, okay? I'm going to help you find your friends, but I need you to stay focused. Can you do that?"

After a while, he nodded with tears trickling down his face and his breathing at a slightly calmer pace. "Yeah. I mean, yes ma'am."

"Good." Camilla tried to give the boys a small, reassuring smile, but she didn't know if it actually made a difference. "Alright, I'm going to see what I can do, but let's get down from here first."

As soon as Camilla brought Finn back to the ground, a group of guardians rushed up to her. Initially, Camilla didn't pay them much mind until she noticed Finn quickly stumble into a messy salute. Upon second glance, she noticed the guardian at the lead was a chief rank, and Camilla hurriedly followed Finn's salute.

"Officer Wyatt, Chief Omar Ali," he introduced himself, waving his hand as if he was shooing away a fly. "No need for formalities when everything's already gone to shit. Right now, we need your help."

"Respectfully, Chief, I was about to help search the rubble for survivors," Camilla replied. She had already agreed to help Finn, and she wasn't going to forget about that just because some chief told her to.

"Really?" Ali replied. "Perfect. How can we help?"

Camilla must have misheard him. "Sorry, what?"

"Our remaining guardians are having trouble searching the debris with all the different types of matter involved," Ali explained. "Whenever they encounter something their energy can't fuse with, they can't be sure if it's because there's a person there or just a form of matter they aren't compatible with. We need someone who can control all three, and we'll do whatever we can to help you."

His cooperativeness and humility was definitely not what Camilla expected from a chief, but she didn't have time to be surprised.

"I need everyone off of the rubble," Camilla said. "They're only going to cause unnecessary movement in the structure. Have them wait on the outer perimeter, evenly dispersed. I'll start from here," Camilla pointed to the section in front of her, "then work clockwise, outside to inside, then top to bottom, calling out the location of anyone I find.

"I also need one person with me to relay the message to those waiting at the perimeter," she added. "The perimeter needs to be on standby to mark or record the areas that are called out, using the green, yellow, red, or black system. When I finish a section of fifteen degrees, I need MS's to analyze the best way to remove the rubble. They can use their abilities to evaluate the structure, but they must not move anything until I'm done unless the victim is red status."

And, because Camilla didn't want to reveal her cell control abilities just yet, she quickly added, "For reds, yellows, and greens, I'll base the statuses off of their heart and breathing rates, and the temperatures they are giving off. "

Only after she finished talking did she realize that she had just listed way too many demands for someone of her rank, and she turned back to Ali. "Can that be done, Chief?"

"It will be," he replied, thankfully not seeming at all offended by Camilla essentially commandeering the situation.

He nodded at the guardians behind him, each of them a captain or vice captain, Camilla noticed belatedly. They immediately complied with Ali's wordless order and rushed around the mountain of rubble, passing along Camilla's instructions. After a minute, everyone was clear, and Camilla placed her hands on the debris.

"I'll relay the location info for you," Ali said, standing beside her. His expression made him seem like he was putting all his faith in Camilla, and Camilla was determined not to let him down. "Ready when you are, Wyatt."

"Yes, Chief."

Camilla took a deep breath and mustered up all the energy she could to infuse in the debris, starting from the outermost section of the top of the pile. She had only been at it for five seconds before she sensed a large mass of cells, but it was about ten degrees too cold.

"Zero degrees, one meter down, two meters in." Camilla steeled herself before saying the last word. "Black." 

She kept searching as Ali relayed the message, only to pause again two seconds later. "Zero degrees, two meters down, five meters in... black."

"One degree, five meters down, three meters in, black."

"Two degrees, three meters down... black."

"Four degrees... black."

"Black... black... black..."

---

NOTES

Well, this changes things.

For reference, the guardian ranking is as follows (from least to most seniority): student, trainee, third officer, second officer, first officer, vice captain, captain, chief, senior chief. For those that are familiar with military hierarchies (and others who are probably thinking "what kind of nonsense is this?!"), the guardian rankings are supposed to align more with local police forces.

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting!