The sweat on the back of Lira's neck paused halfway on its descent and then vaporised. Goosebumps covered her skin. She lowered her gun and straightened up. Her Investigators looked around, confused and shivering, waiting on her order.

A chilly wind picked up, tugging the hoods off the Investigators' heads. The monsters stumbled as the velocity picked up, squinting at the unknown assailant. They paused, uncertain. Lira could taste the heavy ominousness in the air. Condensation covered the windows on the buildings around them. Droplets of water slid down and then vanished into the air.

"What's going on?" said one of the Investigator, craning her neck. She made to step forward.

"Stop," barked Lira. The Investigator slid back into line, confused. "Stay where you are – all of you."

She gestured at the far group of Investigators. One acknowledged the order and they all stayed put.

The wind continued to pick up, swirling around the two groups of Investigators. The creatures caught in the blows hopped back and forth, snapping at the air. The injured students lying on the ground whimpered, too weak to stand and flee, too injured to pull themselves anywhere. Lira licked her lips. They were so dry. Condensation on all the metal and glass surfaces vaporised. Static crackled in the air.

Footsteps reached her ears. Lira whipped around.

A tall User with chiselled features and hair so light it was almost halo-like stepped away from a pod car, a lazy hand raised in the air. Steel-grey eyes swept with disdain over the mess across the street. A toothy grin split across his face when he spotted Lira.

"Lira." He greeted her like a friend, but there was no warmth in those eyes.

"Cryo." Lira's tone was as glacial as the temperature.

"I heard there was need for my help."

Lira exhaled but didn't reply.

"No? You break my heart."

She didn't break her gaze with his. Cryo cocked an eyebrow, the hairs so fine and pale it was barely visible over his translucent skin.

"I wouldn't try to read me if I were you. You remember what happened last time you tried."

Lira grimaced. One of the creatures crept too close. To her disgust, the nearest Investigator let out a cry. Cryo's smile broadened.

"Well, Lira?" he called out.

The creature crept ever closer and his ilk kept close behind, apparently unaffected by the buffeting wind. Blood glistened on its lips before vaporising. Several more Investigators were trembling now, glancing at her, fear prominent on their pinched faces. Lira's hands tightened into fists. Her Investigators relied upon her. Cryo appeared to take great delight in her turmoil, those grey eyes gleaming.

"Please," she said quietly.

Cryo snapped the fingers on his raised hand.

The wind took on a torrential change. Lira's long chestnut hair was whipped back. She narrowed her eyes against the strong blows. Soft tinkling reached her ears, followed by screams – screams from the monsters, peppered by those of injured students'. Her surroundings whitened. She couldn't see clearly, but she knew what was happening: millions of tiny ice shards tore at incredible speeds in the hurricane, shearing skin and lacerating exposed flesh. She had seen it before.

Her Investigators yelled in shock. None of them had seen Cryo in action before, but she'd seen his signature move, 'Blizzard'. They wouldn't be harmed. Her hair was whipped back and forth. Crimson mist joined the shards of ice in the storm. The air smelled metallic.

Five seconds later, the wind dissipated as if it had never existed.

"Seal Area Six," she said. Her Investigators nodded and darted off, their cloaks flapping. Heti and Ito, the two assigned to guard her safety hesitated, watchful of Cryo. "All of you."

They did as they were told, all the while casting unsure looks at the two of them.

"Your underlings think they can take me on?" Cryo seemed most amused. He raised his hand, his lips curling.

"No," said Lira, stepping between him and her retreating Investigators. "They mean nothing by that."

"I don't like the looks they gave me. I think they should be punished."

"Administration sent you here?" She tried to change the topic. Cryo cocked an eyebrow, seeing what she did, but nodded anyway.

"Well, someone said you were in trouble. So I thought I'd come and rescue the damsel."

Lira didn't rise to the bait. She merely narrowed her eyes at him. Cryo laughed.

"You're obviously not controlling your toys well enough. Shall I do something?"

"No," Lira said hastily. Cryo's eyes glimmered. "You've done enough."

He relaxed his hand, sweeping a glance over the scene before him with pride. Lira followed his gaze. Where the injured students and threatening creatures were only moments before, there now lay puddles of blood and water, decorated by the occasional strip of flesh and strands of hair. Scarlet dots pepper the windows on the ground and first floors, making rivulets as they slid down the vertical surfaces. Lira swallowed, careful to keep her face blank.

"Yes, I rather think I did a good job." Cryo placed his hands on his hips, looping long fingers through the hoops at his waist. "You take so long even with all you have at your disposal, Lira. It's almost disappointing for someone ranked so high. Are you sure you're not weak? Shall we test?"

"Now's not the time," Lira replied, stoic. Cryo clapped a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch. "Don't you have places to be, Cryo?"

"Well, yes, I suppose. This was a nice break. My latest assignment has been entertaining. Probably not challenging enough; not for me, anyway." His eyes dared her to ask for more, but Lira knew all of Cryo's tasks were classified information and he divulged nothing. He just wanted to know she was curious and delighted in holding that secret over her. He delighted in holding power above everybody.

"I see."

He flexed his fingers.

"What was the assignment?" she was forced to ask, wary of what was going on in his head.

"Ah, now, you know I can't tell you." His grin was broader than ever. He looped his hands at his belt again and Lira eased out a breath. "That's between me and central Administration, and it's top-secret stuff. Powerful as you are it's too difficult even for you, even if all your little Investigators played with you."

He laughed again and patted her on her back. Lira stiffened. Cackling still, he marched off to his pod car, his white-blonde hair glistening like charged steel, and slid into its doors. Lira didn't move until the round vehicle disappeared in the distance, and finally allowed herself a shudder. Cryo was dangerous, but he was vital for the city's wellbeing. Lira didn't know enough to understand why, but if it was central Administration's decision to send him on classified tasks and annul any lawbreaking by his hands, she had no rights to question anything, even if all her instincts point in the other direction. Her job was to reinforce laws, not question them. He had his job; she had hers.

A gentle wind blew through her long chestnut hair. She brushed a hand through it, making sure every strand stood in its place, and patted her black cloak into uniform folds again. The moisture in the air had returned from where Cryo had harvested, vaporising from the puddles. Stepping through the hole in the wall were her two guards.

"We've secured the area, ma'am!" said one of them. He glanced around. "The Freezer... he's left?"

"Yes." Lira scrutinised him. At least he had the shame to look away. "And next time, it will do you good not to offend him. The Freezer has skills beyond your imagination." And you won't live to see a second time.

"Yes, ma'am," he whispered.

"He even killed the students that were just caught in the mess..." said the other in a tiny voice, his face drained of blood. He couldn't hide the tremble in his hands as he clutched his electric baton to his side. "What kind of reinforcement User does that?"

One with power beyond all their imaginations. One who answered only to central Administration. Even Lira wasn't above the law.

"Clean it up."

The rest of the Investigators marched through the hole, some of them holding rebels in electric chains. The last of them placed several devices along the wall. With a buzz, reinforced metal bars slid across the gap, closing it indefinitely. A gentle buzz in the air was the only clue to the high voltage running through.

"Some of the creatures might still be in hiding, but we've flooded the area and sealed the remaining exits. And we've got all the rebels that tried to flee. A few of them died fighting us or trying to escape."

Lira counted the remaining heads. Maybe ten, fifteen or so. That was more than enough. How pathetic they all look, weeping and depressed. None of the pride or arrogance survived being caught out in their own game. One of them caught her eye, a snivelling dark-haired girl with burns on her hands and fresh, bleeding wounds across the shoulders and upper arms.

"She's failed her task," said her guard. Lira's eyebrows rose slightly at his statement of the obvious. The girl's punishment would come later. Lira scanned the remaining faces. A few of them were those of the students that vanished in previous explosions or were reported missing long before any terrorist activities. One pinched face made her heart stop and restart.

She approached, frowning, and stopped in front of the hunched-over girl in the dirtied lab coat. The girl didn't cry or acknowledge her presence, although all the others stared at her in terror.

"Look at me."

She didn't.

"I said, look at me!"

"Always so assertive, all these years," she sneered and looked up. Lira's heart skipped a beat. She recognised those sharp brown eyes behind cracked glasses.

"Kena."

"It's been a while," rasped Kena. Her hair was wilder, messier, her skin taut around her cheeks, but it was her old classmate; no mistake.

"You're supposed to be dead."

"And yet I'm not." She grinned. A tooth had been knocked out in the recent scuffle and blood oozed out of the corner of her mouth. "Funny how accurate the city's records are, eh? So perfect, so infallible... and yet here I am."

Lira hesitated. It was impossible that Kena was alive. City documents stated she had died in a laboratory accident and even the Peacekeeper reports matched, as did the very Peacekeepers involved with her case at that time. She spoke to them herself. They hadn't lied to her. She never saw the body – but then, dead bodies were never left to be verified. The system did that itself when death documents were submitted. Like Kena said, the system was infallible.

And yet, indeed, here she was.

"Take them all away," said Lira, her voice becoming frigid again to avoid Kena causing her further ire.

The Investigators yanked them up by the backs of their hands. A few of the ones with residual fighting spirits wriggled but cried when they were electrified before being shoved into the secured pod cars with their ability- and weapon-proof interiors. Kena allowed herself to be rough-handled without a sound, her gleaming brown eyes meeting Lira's, knowing the unease she had caused. Kena was no idiot, Lira knew that. Kena was one of the highest-ranked in academics for their year before her 'death', and would have ranked higher overall were her ability not so weak.

Her eyes settled on Ilia before she was taken away. "Wait. Not her."

Ilia's huge pale blue eyes filled with fear. Dion, the Investigator holding her, released his grip as told and slid into another pod car. Lira's underlings all departed, leaving just one empty pod car waiting for her.

Lira raised her hands. Tears fell from Ilia's eyes.

"I did tell you what would happen if you failed."

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