Miles away, Vanessa crouched atop a rooftop under cover of night, her raven-black bodysuit shimmering faintly with suppression runes. Below her, a fortified outpost teemed with armed cultists—members of the Obsidian Scourge.
Her mission: infiltrate, gather intelligence, and plant a tracer.
Alone.
She whispered, "Time to see if these powers are more than whispers in my head."
Sliding down a column, Vanessa moved like a shadow. Her footsteps made no sound. She reached the courtyard, bypassed two guards, and stopped behind a steel gate. Her breath slowed. Her pulse steadied.
A patrol approached.
Now.
Vanessa focused—her eyes shimmered purple—and whispered: "Obey."
The closest guard froze. His eyes went glassy, a faint violet ring appearing in his pupils.
"Open the gate," she commanded softly.
Wordlessly, the guard obeyed. The gate creaked open.
Vanessa slipped through just before the second guard turned the corner. She pressed her back to the wall, waiting, cloaking herself in silence.
Heart pounding, she tested the new ability again. Her voice dropped into a siren tone—seductive, commanding, unnatural. "Sleep."
The second guard's eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the ground.
Vanessa's powers were still raw, but they worked. Mental influence—low-tier psychic control that could one day sway armies or break minds.
She moved deeper inside, finally reaching the central war room. There, she found the map—routes, targets, notes on magical relics. She planted the tracer and quickly took several pictures with her enchanted lens.
Then she heard it.
Footsteps. Too many.
Time to go.
But as she turned, the cult leader stepped into the chamber. A red-robed woman with glowing black eyes.
"You shouldn't be here, little thief."
Vanessa stood straight, smirking. "Funny. I was just thinking the same about you."
The woman lunged—but Vanessa was ready. She used a pocket flash rune to blind her and slipped through the window just as alarms blared.
By the time the outpost guards organized a pursuit, she was already gone—vanishing into the trees like a whisper.
---
Later, at basecamp, Vanessa returned to Isabella and Jake, throwing a dossier on the table.
"Mission accomplished. Also, I can now tell people what to do with my voice. So... we might want to talk about that."
Jake laughed. "Okay, so now we have an electric bird boy, a mind-siren spy, and a battle mage."
Isabella raised an eyebrow. "We're not a team. We're a problem set."
Jake glanced at his wrist, where the Mythatrix gleamed softly.
"Yeah... and I think we just became the biggest one this world's seen in a while."