Note: Previously, in Minorilude 1, a group of mysterious, unknown Touched were breaking into what should have been a completely secret vault full of confiscated Touched-Tech. Making matters worse, and more complicated, this group apparently managed to encase a nearby building and all of its occupants in a stasis field, trapping them there. Several of the occupants of that now stasis-locked building included Caishen, visiting Chicago Star-Touched Lexeme, their daughters, Wren 'Trevithick' Donovan, and Qwerty. With the situation becoming more dangerous by the second, and other adult Star-Touched otherwise engaged, the Minority team (complete with several new members) was called together to go investigate and attempt to handle things. It takes place roughly concurrent with current events with Cassidy, the previous interlude with Setrea/Grandstand, and… very slightly prior to Arleigh's last interlude.

Okay, okay, she could do this. It was fine, everything was fine. This was what they signed up for. They wanted to prove themselves, wanted to show they could do all the things their mother did. Their mom helped people, fought bad guys, kept everyone safe, she used her powers for good. That was what mattered, and it was okay to be nervous about all this, because their mom still got nervous and she was like… one of the best Star-Touched in the entire world, very literally.

All those thoughts and many more kept spinning through the mind of Lexi Chambers, while she and the rest of the Detroit Minority, new and old members alike, stepped into the room created by the Ten Towers Tech-Touchedknown as Switchshift. It was a room that was able to connect to any of a dozen or so other basically identical rooms spread across the city for rapid transit.

Obviously, the Switchshift rooms weren't usually able to take them straight to where any given trouble was. There were only so many of them spread through the city, after all. They were just meant to get the team close enough that the whole situation wouldn't be over by the time they got there. But in this case, the 'situation' was happening at the supposedly secret Touched-Tech vault, which was right next door to one of the Switchshift exits because people used that to move the tech into the vault without actually having to drive through the city.

As the doors closed and the 'magic' started to happen so they could step out in an all new place, Lexi took a deep breath and told herself, for about the fifteenth time in the past thirty seconds, to calm down. The fourteen-year-old exchanged a glance with her twin brother. She couldn't make out his face while that blue mask with green lenses was in the way, but she knew Zed well enough to be certain he was as nervous about all this as she was. Because yes, they had absolutely signed up for this. They had begged their parents to make an official move to Detroit, at least for awhile, because they wanted to stay and help even after the quarantine came down.

They had real friends here now, friends they didn't want to just abandon. Granted, they'd had friends in LA too, but these ones actually knew about their powers. Zed and Lexi had always had to keep their gifts secret, even from people they were supposedly close to, because there was too great of a chance that someone would figure out who their mother was. It was just… complicated and difficult. The stress of knowing their mother always went into those incredibly dangerous situations and not being able to really share why they were worried had made the twins mostly confide in one another. They were each other's real best friends. Their other friends were kept at arms-length, remaining just school friends. It was easier to avoid feeling bad about lying to everyone if they didn't get that close.

It wasn't that difficult for the family to move, at least. Well, not as far as work went. Their mother might've been listed as a detective with the LAPD on paper, but she didn't actually have time for that. Not as Radiant, the American member of Armistice. No, posing as a cop was just a way of keeping her identity secret and explaining why she often disappeared at all hours. Anyone who looked into it would find several of her supposed coworkers and captain willing to swear that she was there all the time and worked plenty of cases with them. Her name appeared on multiple casefiles. By all appearances, their mother was just a normal, if rather successful LAPD cop.

Their dad, meanwhile, was a reporter and was easily able to pick up a job anywhere. Plus, he'd been looking to get out of California to spend time somewhere new for awhile. At one point, they had almost moved back to Wyoming, where their parents had met when their mom was in college. Heck, they'd almost stayed in Wyoming to begin with. From what the twins' parents said whenever they talked about those days, it had practically come down to a coin toss at the time as to whether they would stay in Wyoming or move back to California, where their dad was from.

In the end, they'd decided to go back to California since their mother didn't have any family keeping her in Wyoming and their dad had his parents. But after so long in Los Angeles, their parents had both been talking about possibly making a change. That change was originally intended to be a move back to Wyoming for a real shift. Instead, the twins had convinced them to give staying in Detroit a shot. Mom was gone a lot with Armistice anyway, her job taking her all over the world. And Dad--well, he used his own resources to travel across the country, talking to sources, investigating leads, just doing all that stuff. Neither of them spent that much time in the city they supposedly lived in. The twins did. Lexi and her brother did. They were the ones who spent day in and day out in one place. So when they had asked to move here, to stay here in Detroit even after what happened, it wasn't that hard to convince their parents to go for that.

Maybe they should've told their parents what other things they had been up to, and just who some of these new friends were, since the list technically included several Fell-Touched. But they had promised to keep all that a secret. And telling their super-reporter dad and Armistice Star-Touched mother didn't exactly scream 'keeping it secret.' The whole situation was just… complicated anyway. Too complicated to get into. They were friends with Carousel and Syndicate, which was easy enough. But they were also friends with Eits, Broadway, Pack, and even Grandstand. That part would have been slightly less easy to get into. Especially given who their mother really was.

At some point, they would probably have to explain all that, and admit that they hadn't told the whole truth. But that would come later. Much later, as far as Lexi and Zed were concerned.

All of which was to say, they had chosen to stay here in Detroit in order to keep helping their friends, both the ones their parents knew about and the ones they didn't. And they had managed to convince their parents to let them start using their powers openly--well, in costume of course, but that was still an improvement. For years now, the twins had been secretly taught how to protect themselves in an emergency, and how to use the gifts they'd inherited from their mother. Now they were finally being allowed to use their powers, and all that training, to do the sort of things their mother did.

Well, maybe not exactly the sort of things their mother did. The situations Armistice got involved in was somewhat--uh, above their level. Even the twins could admit that much. But still, they were part of this Minority team. They were here to help people in a real way, like their mom did.

And now? Right now they were going out on their first real mission. This was their first chance to do what their mom did, to prove they weren't just little kids, that they could really do this sort of thing. This was their chance to finally prove all that not only to their parents, but to themselves.

So yeah, Lexi was nervous. Their first real mission as part of this team that wasn't just a training exercise, and it was to investigate-- and stop a whole group of completely unknown Fells who had discovered where this vault full of confiscated Touched-Tech was, and were trying to break into it. Worse, they apparently had access to some sort of weapon that had trapped several buildings full of people in a stasis field. Which--gulp. Yeah, that was kind of a lot for a first mission, Lexi had to admit.

But they could do this. They were ready for this. They were going to make it work. Not just to prove it to themselves and their parents, but so they didn't let down their new friends, their new teammates. Jae, all four Damarkos, and everyone else on the team were all counting on them.

"Hey." As the doors opened, Zed caught her hand, squeezing it. "Get out of your head, okay?"

Feeling her cheeks flush a bit behind her own white mask (their parents really had gone just completely overboard in putting their costumes together once they agreed to let them join the Minority), Lexi bobbed her head quickly. "I'm okay. I'm good." She really was. Easy as it might've been to get overwhelmed, especially with all the uncertainties they were walking into now, she was here with her brother, with Jae and the Damarkos, and the rest of their new team. She could do this. They could do this. Whatever trouble they were walking into, they'd deal with it.

Pushing everything else, all of it, out of her mind, Lexi took a breath and moved. No, not Lexi. She wasn't Lexi right now. She didn't have Lexi's doubts, Lexi's worries, Lexi's nervousness. She didn't have any of that. She was Yeet, of the new Detroit Minority. And they had a job to do.

From the outside, the place they were about to come out of just looked like an ordinary small equipment shed in the back part of an old, mostly unused parking lot. There had been some worry that if these unknown Fells knew about the Touched-Tech vault, they might know about the Switchshift room too. Especially considering they'd already taken out all the security cameras in the area. Between that and the fact that every drone that tried to get close enough to see what was going on ended up being shot down, there was no way of knowing what they were walking into. There could be anything going on out there. And any sort of threat waiting for them.

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So, instead of stepping right out of there and into any potential trap, the group only took a few steps forward, enough to make anyone who might be watching think it was time to spring said trap. Then, as planned, they grabbed onto That-A-Way just before the girl teleported all the way out of there and up to the roof of the next building over. It wasn't a particularly high building, barely a couple stories tall. But it would give them a good view of the whole parking lot around the Switchshift building, as well as the rest of the area leading all the way over to the vault itself.

On the other hand, staying in one big clump like that was what Mo-- Radiant would've called 'incredibly tactically unwise.' So within a second after they appeared, the group was already spreading out, lunging away from each other just in case something--or someone was already targeting them. They spread out along the edge of the roof quickly, staying low and taking in the view.

Aaand… they saw nothing in particular. Standing there on the low building roof, Le--Yeet stared first at the spot they had just come out of, before her eyes snapped over to look in the direction of the vault building. But there was no one else in sight, not a single figure visible through the entire lot.

A quick glance to the left, however, showed the buildings that had been caught in that stasis field. It just looked like a glowing greenish-yellow forcefield surrounding the whole block, like a giant bubble of energy. As she looked that way, Yeet felt a pang of intense nervousness despite herself. Were the people in there okay? What if she and the others couldn't make these strange, unknown Fells turn the field off? What if--what--okay, it had been one thing to sit at home worrying about what their mother was doing in these situations. But actually being here, being responsible for what happened, that created a whole new level of anxiety. There were innocent civilians in there, along with Caishen, Lexeme, and those kids. They were all trapped, and it was the Minority's job to stop the new Fells and get those people out safely without letting anything else happen to them. They weren't watching on TV anymore, they weren't telling each other what they would do if they were in this situation. They were actually in it. They were right here, and whatever happened, they had to handle it. This was down to them. Nobody else. Not their mother, not another Touched, them. They had to deal with this right now. Them and their new teammates.

But deal with what right now? Where were those people? Were they still inside that vault place over there? The Minority weren't too late, were they? No, no, the strangers were still in there. That big truck, the moving truck parked over by those dumpsters, had to be what they were planning on using to move the Touched-Tech with. There was no other reason for it to be there, all by itself in the otherwise fairly empty lot back there. Whoever these people were, they had to be inside still.

No sooner had she taken that much in and come to that conclusion, in between telling herself to calm down and take a breath before she started hyperventilating in nervousness, than Syndicate--well the one who was standing closest (the other three had already moved to get other vantage points) spoke up from his own position a few feet away. "Spread out, move to other rooftops and stay low. Wait for them to come through those doors on their way to the truck. Once they're in the open, hit them from all sides before they have a chance to react. We don't know what most of their powers are, so just hit them hard and fast. Disorient them, get them on the ground and cuff them with your stay-downs. Once they're all cuffed, we can sort out the details about that stasis field. Hopefully with help from some adults by then." He added that last bit with a soft grunt. "Wobble can disorient them. Fragile can help with that. Shower them with glass, hit them from all sides. Distraction and nausea. Flashflak, use your bomb thing to disable them one at a time while they're disoriented. Do all the damage you need to make sure they stay down. One of us will run in, cuff them while they're injured, and then you can undo the damage as soon as they're secure."

Normally, of course, Lexi was pretty sure the Minority would never be telling each other to hit their opponents with what amounted to a bomb. But that was Flashflak's power. He could throw a metal ball that exploded into tiny pellets, like a claymore mine. But each pellet could only ever have active damage on one thing. So if the pellet was used to hit something else, the damage done to the first thing would be erased. Flashflak could damage, even horrifically injure people, then immediately undo it without any ill effect. Well, other than the mental trauma, probably.

Syndicate was already continuing. "Facs," he started with a look to Yeet's brother, "we'll need you to block off their route to the truck so they can't escape that way. Those forcefields you make are pretty strong, right?"

"Not forcefields," Facsimile noted reflexively, probably out of habit more than anything else. "I make solid energy copies of anything I touch. That includes air. That's the 'forcefield.' And yeah, I mean… pretty strong, but it won't stand up to absolutely everything those guys can throw at it. Especially if they've really got some chick with superstrength."

"I know, I know, solid energy copies, it was just shorthand. And that's okay, it just needs to delay them so they can't walk straight to it," Syndicate assured him before moving on. "Carousel, you're on disarming duty. Any boxes they're carrying, any weapons they might have or tech they've pulled out of that place, use your power to rip it out of their hands and get it away from them."

The girl in question gave a crisp salute at that, with a glance toward Yeet. "It would be my honor, to turn this trip to such a yawner. Though a stunning plan, as designed, may fail to keep them confined. With an open and uncovered lot below, they may leave without as much as hello."

"You're right," the boy agreed. "They might slip past us and make a run for it. That's what you're going to be handling, Yeet." He looked to her. "Those eggs of yours, if any of these guys get past us, hit them with the things and send them flying back into the middle where we are, okay? You can stay right over there, on the roof of that next building over. That way you'll have a view of both alleys they'd probably use to run through. Hit them with the eggs to send them back where the rest of us can grab them."

She could do that. She could definitely do that. Actually, the simple idea of having an actual plan and something coherent to do calmed Yeet down. She gave him a thumbs up. "I can do that."

Then it happened. It, in this case, was her own voice speaking up from behind her. The exact same words she had just spoken a moment earlier. "I can do that." The identical voice came out of nowhere, with no other warning that there was anything or anyone there.

But there was. Even as the group spun that way, they could see the figure standing directly behind them. A figure who had managed to sneak behind the group without anyone noticing their arrival.

And the group not noticing the man approach was quite the feat indeed, considering how unnaturally, stupefyingly tall he was. They all had to lean back to look up at him. This guy stood a good nine feet in height, though he also seemed to be very skinny. He wore some sort of sweatsuit that seemed to be sewn together from multiple sets, and his head was covered with an oversized ski mask.

While they were taking that in, the enormous figure spoke again. No, he didn't speak. He repeated words that had come a moment earlier. That time, the words were from Carousel, and sounded exactly like the girl. It was her own voice being repeated back at them. "It would be my honor, to turn this trip to such a yawner."

Syndicate was saying something, shouting something. Or rather, he was trying to. That much was obvious from his body language as he lunged that way to put himself between the others and this giant figure. But no sound emerged. When Yeet tried to shout something at her brother, she found her own voice cut off as well. None of them could speak. The sounds were completely muted. Even the noise of Syndicate scrambling over the roof couldn't be heard at all. No wonder none of them had heard this guy approach, if he could make everything around him silent like that.

That thought flashed through the young girl's mind even as the intruder caught Syndicate by the arm and gave him a quick toss off the roof. Seeing that, she dove to the edge and tried to throw one of her eggs at him. But nothing happened. The egg didn't come when she focused on it. Landing on her stomach with nothing in her hand, all she could do was look down in time to see Syndicate shift into his intangible form right before he wouldn't hit the ground. Now he just passed partway through it. Right, of course, he'd just shifted which of his bodies was tangible.

But why couldn't she use her power? Focusing again, she still ended up with noth-- oh wait, there it was. The egg appeared in her hand, even as she heard That-A-Way behind her let out a yelp of pain. Wait, no, that didn't make sense. The girl had been facing east, as she came at the big guy from the side. She should have been invulnerable. But he looked at her and one swipe from his fist had put the girl down, clutching her side and wheezing.

Wobble had his hand extended to send a wave of nausea that way. It actually seemed to work for a second, making the big guy stagger. But he looked over, and the waves immediately stopped.

It wasn't just sound. Whoever this guy was, he could turn off active powers too. But only one at a time. He had to focus on one of them and shut down their powers.

Realizing that, Yeet gripped the egg in her hand and rolled sideways a bit to get behind the man, hoping he wouldn't notice her while focused on Wobble. As soon as she managed to put herself in position, the girl came to one knee and hurled her glowing golden egg at his back.

Unfortunately, before the egg could hit him, it was engulfed in a blast of freezing cold that came from the side. The egg broke under the force of it, and Yeet's gaze snapped that way just in time to see another figure. This one was dressed much the same as the first, in a ski mask and sweatsuit, though he was much smaller, a normal-sized man.

He was also wearing a glove on one hand. It looked like an ordinary leather glove, and that was where the blast of freezing cold was coming from.

Unlike the first man's mask, this one left his mouth uncovered, and she could see the wide, demented smile that grew more pronounced, more eager as he looked at her.

Then his other hand rose, the one without a glove. The girl had an inkling of danger, before the air in front of her was abruptly filled with heat, as the man sent a ball of incinerating fire her way.

A hand grabbed her, and then she was standing on the next roof over. It was That-A-Way, who apparently had her powers back now that the big guy wasn't looking at her. She had teleported over and then teleported again to get Yeet out of the way of that fire.

"Who are these guys!?" Yeet demanded.

The other girl shook her head. "I don't know.

"But I'm starting to think we might be in trouble."

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