The bell on the door chimed.

Three figures stepped inside, and the temperature in the shop seemed to drop a degree. Tanya felt it in her teeth. Marcy stiffened beside her.

Adder entered first.

Tanya had forgotten what being face-to-face with Adder felt like.

He wasn't tall enough to intimidate by height alone, but somehow he still filled the doorway. A battered charcoal coat hung from his shoulders, still beaded with the damp of morning fog, and beneath it a vest and shirt. Tanya hadn't seen anyone in a dress shirt except Sebastian, but they wore it very differently. All of Adder's clothes looked worn, and his hair tousled, longer than last time, more stubble too.

His eyes landed on Tanya. "Well, this is a charming little hole-in-the-wall."

Tanya swallowed. "Welcome back to my parlour."

His gaze flicked over the space—ink bottles, guns, half-sketched flash art on the counter. He clasped his gloves in one hand. "Shall we get to business?"

Two figures stepped in behind him. One was short, wiry, with a furrowed brow, and one lanky man with headphones half-on his neck and wires looping out of a patched-up backpack. The latter looked around with a mixture of fascination and the nervousness of a man who definitely did not go outside enough.

Tanya forced her voice steady. "Alright."

Adder stepped further in, boots silent on the floorboards. "You must be the transmitter. What's your Class?"

Marcy squeaked slightly. "Foley Artist."

Adder raised a brow like he'd expected someone older, taller, or less like a terrified grad student. "Delightful," he said. He pointed at the nervous one. "Hostage Solver." Then, at the one with the oversized headphones. "Resonance Sorcerer."

Tanya's mind boggled. She couldn't even fathom where those had come from. Surely they must be Unique, but she supposed with ones like Urban Ghost being common, it was hard to know.

The sound guy perked up. "So what does Foley Artist do? Change sounds in the surroundings, move where it's coming from, change volume? All that?"

Marcy blinked. "I—yes? I can use noise as… like… tools, I guess."

He grinned. "Brilliant. I'm Jay. Don't mind the backpack humming. It's supposed to."

The telepath sighed. "No, it's not."

Jay shrugged. "Well, it does."

Marcy relaxed a fraction. "I'm Marcy."

Adder gestured. "Discuss whatever must be discussed. I would like confirmation that this will work before we start carving magic into my skin."

His attention swung back to Tanya with the weight of a guillotine setting into place. "So what is this hairbrained scheme of yours?"

Tanya half shrugged. "I have the Ability to lease tattoos. Better time investment on a larger scale. In return, your try out will be the Estates' multi-Boss fight."

"Couldn't take the handout, could you?" Adder said.

Tanya realised he was talking about his initial offer of sending help.

"You don't do handouts, just deals. Not letting me die is just one of them. You'd have only cared about me and my direct allies, yeah?"

"That's true."

They went around the specifics, making the terms clear for how many of Adder's men would help. Tanya tried not to baulk when he offered 30. That would be a hell of a lot of tattoos, but she thought she could manage it, especially considering she could loan ones she already had as well. In return, Tanya would create a range of tattoos for leasing, covering the basis of healing, crowd control, increased mobility, weapons, and reducing damage at a minimum. He didn't see the need for percentages, saying that it would depend on the people. He wanted to match the people to the tattoos. Tanya agreed.

"Happy?" Tanya said.

"Enough."

"As for your part," he said, "we have a custom to finalise, do we not?"

"Sure do," Tanya said, hoping he didn't notice her palms were sweating. "But let's confirm the comms range thing first. I'm not wastin' time on a maybe. If it doesn't, we stick to the original plan."

They turned to the others. Tanya and Adder had just spoken in the doorway, but the others had walked over to the seating, standing awkwardly beside the sofas as if unsure whether to sit down.

The nervous telepath stepped forward. "I'm Calder."

Marcy nodded politely. Calder's eyes flicked past her, landing on Tanya. Tanya felt the faintest pressure, like a fingertip at her temple—then it vanished.

It came again, harder, then vanished. "You aren't a telepath, are you?" he asked.

"No. Just used to magic like yours."

"I see you have a few new tricks since we last met," Adder said.

Tanya met his gaze. "I'm sure you do too."

"Terribly sorry about my telepath," Adder said absently. He finally sat down in Mrs Eceer's high-backed armchair. "Shall we test?"

Jay pulled something out of his humming pack—a coil of copper wire wrapped around a huge crystal. It reminded Tanya of the kind her mum had on the mantle at home.

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Marcy leaned forward, fascinated. "What is it?"

Jay grinned. "It's this weird system version of a crystal radio. I used to make them with my sister, so when I learnt to control resonance, it just… felt normal."

"I could never get smaller stuff to work like this. They're made for Earth radio, and people with Classes seem to have stronger effects, so you hear them all overlapping—"

"Doesn't happen," Jay said proudly. "Not with my rig."

"Because of the Frequency Control Ability," Calder mocked in a high-pitched voice.

"Exactly." Jay grinned, like Calder had offered praise instead of an insult.

Marcy passed Jay the plans of her own strange radio tower. "What do you make of this? Could it become a giant crystal radio?"

Jay's mouth dropped open. "Holy— wait, are they runes? Do you make magical sound runes!?"

"Those are Mrs Eceer's. She makes these trap circuits. We found that we could use them to trap sound, but because most of my powers are related to sound in the vicinity rather than sound waves themselves, I've had trouble."

Jay spoke faster and faster. "Then we don't even need the crystal. I just need to decode the frequencies and transmit them directly to you…Then Calder… It's easy. It just goes one way. He transmits it into my head. You still have that branching telepathy Ability, right, Calder?"

He nodded.

"So I am then branching it through all those frequencies and using Calder's thinky stuff, it should be heard by everyone in the radius. The radio tower thing—it's awesome by the way—that fixes the distance issue, but we are going to need a hell of a lot of resonance for me to work off for something like this."

Marcy rubbed her hands together.

Jay's grin widened. "What?"

"Oh shit, the cannon," Tanya said as it clicked into place.

Marcy reached down to her side and pulled up the side of her top. Calder flushed, looking away, but Jay leaned in closer.

"Woah, what is it?" He turned to Tanya. "Wait, did you say cannon?"

"Resonance Cannon," Marcy whispered.

Jay clutched his headphones, shuffling around his chair with pent-up excitement.

Adder rubbed his temples. "Can you two get me a damn answer?"

"Oh! Yes. Sorry." Marcy straightened, cheeks going pink. "Yes. We think we can."

"It's going to be epic," Jay said.

"Delightful," Calder added, deadpan.

Adder clasped his hands. "Excellent. Then it seems both sides get what they need."

He turned to his people. "Sort out the logistics. I'll join you when I'm sufficiently stabbed."

Calder nodded and headed toward the back with Marcy in tow. Jay followed, excitedly explaining something about signal noise. As the door swung shut behind them, silence settled over the front room.

Adder surveyed the shop again, eyes lingering on each piece of equipment with clinical detachment.

"So," he said slowly, "this looks different from the last time I've been here."

Tanya let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. "After your guys trashed it, you mean?"

"If this is what trashing it made you do to the place, then I'm glad we did." He sounded serious, but his small smirk gave him away.

"It's a monster core," Tanya said, walking through to the back room. Adder followed. "Got it hooked up, and it made it into a construct."

Adder's footsteps stopped. Tanya turned round. He looked shocked.

"Do I know something that the great and might Adder didn't?" Tanya joked.

"I'd heard of people using them to power homes or cars, and even creating these strange dungeon things with them, but not a business." His eyes glazed over as he fell deep into thought.

"Wondering if a gang headquarters counts as one, eh?"

His eyes locked onto hers. "How will you be splitting the loot—the monster cores?"

Tanya thought about it. "Proportionally by number in each group, probably. I'd guess your 30 will be a fifth of the people, if my hairbrained scheme, as you called it, works, then maybe my group will get one too. The others can go to the Estate."

"You'd push for me to get one?" Adder said, surprised.

Tanya shrugged. "Not sure if that's the exact method we will go with, but yeah, if it ends up bein' fair."

Adder nodded. The look in his eye changed. Tanya wasn't sure exactly how she'd describe it, but she thought it looked like respect.

She motioned to the tattoo chair. Adder settled into it.

"What did you have in mind for the custom?" Tanya asked, pulling out a sketchpad. Her hands steadied now that she had a pen. Art was safer than diplomacy.

Adder rested one ankle over the other. "You mentioned Attributes. What range can you support for something… more aggressive?"

"I need it within my Vitality threshold, which is… pretty good now." She didn't mention that she was only planning on using half. "I can decide exactly what it does, or for a more freeform approach, do a design with a general memory or intention and just… see what happens. You'll want something that suits Firestarter, I assume?"

"Assumption correct." Adder's smile sharpened. "I've always favoured serpentine motifs. Predictable, I know, but one must embrace one's brand. Although considering the skill of my snake here nowadays, I'd be open to something different."

Tanya flipped to a clean page. "Something with a strike ability? Area flames? Something more controlled?"

"I can do all of that already," Adder said.

"What can you do?" Tanya fired back.

Adder paused, seeming to size her up. "Alright. I'll bite. I have complete control of fire. Anything you think fire can do, I probably can. I've also moved into explosives and general heat control."

"Can you turn into fire?" Tanya asked, impressed.

He smiled. "I can. A more recent addition."

"Feels like something powerful and sentient could suit you," Tanya said.

"Why's that?"

"If you can control fire, we just need it to be made of fire, and then perhaps you can control it."

"Hm, interesting." Adder reclined into the seat. "I ended up propelling my snake down a more infiltration focused path for the same reason. It became immune to fire early, but I found anything combat-oriented made it harder to control."

Tanya smirked. "Alright. Snake made of fire?"

Adder rolled his eyes.

"Aw, don't you think that beautiful neck boy is just writhing for a friend?"

"Dragons are the obvious one," Adder said. "Although they breathe fire rather than being made of it.

The thought hit her like a ton of bricks. "Phoenix," she breathed.

His eyes lit slightly. "Yes.. Pheonix. I like it."

Tanya sketched on her pages quickly—flowing lines down his back, its head would rest on Adder's shoulder blade, as if it was standing down his spine and resting its head on his shoulder. She made its beak end right next to the snake. Partly because it looked cool as fuck, and partly because she liked the way it worked with his snake tattoo. Yet another pair of eyes watching his back.

He watched her drawing with interest.

"It's perfect."

"Do you have a powerful memory you could channel into it?" Tanya asked.

Adder cracked his knuckles. "The perfect memory for the perfect tattoo."

They both stared at it a moment longer

"And checking the lease terms for the rest of my men?" Adder asked lightly. "Since you're dangling something rather valuable in front of me."

Tanya rolled her shoulders. Seemed like this tattoo was hook, line, and sinker. Tanya would have thought it was a shame to use this much Vitality so close to the battle if he weren't fighting alongside her. She still couldn't trust him as far as she could throw him, but a powerful ally was still a powerful ally.

"This tattoo is yours. Your men keep theirs long-term if the Estate stands when we're done. I'll make a few variations inspired by the roles you said they have, and there will be some I already have on me that I may offer. If they don't get along with what you give them, I will be open to them changing, but not customs, leases."

Adder studied her for a moment, long enough that Tanya felt the air thicken.

Then he smiled.

"Deal."

Adder pulled out a written pact, and Tanya read it carefully, then spoke it aloud in tandem with him. The Pact was sealed.

Tanya turned on the machine. The needle buzzed to life.

Adder unbuttoned his shirt. He had the same thick welts down his arms as last time she'd seen him. They still looked raw and reddish purple, even with so much more time and superhuman healing. "Are you ready to see how I got these scars?"

The statement caught Tanya off guard.

His voice was thick with emotion. "You don't get powers like this unless you're a real phoenix."

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