​     The same telepathic images filled the heads of all three of them at the same time, yet it wasn't like they got lost in the images. They knew that, in fact, they were still in the shower at Niki and Trevor's living and training facility.

     Given that, though...

​     They found themselves surrounded by the images the Azure wanted them to see.

     It was how the Azure communicated.

​     The images were of Seatrailia.

​     The metropolis where both Niki and Trevor had been born and lived most of their young lives until the Azure swept them up.

​     They recognized the neighborhood that was shown to them.

​     It was the corner of Greatway and 34th.

​     It was the corner of Seatrailia where the downtown area met the industrial district.

​     A lot of the homeless lived in that area.

​     They saw that it was a cloudy mid morning. Trevor and Niki fought the irrational urge to shiver, the city looked so gray and cold.

     And then they saw Egoneg.

​     "That's the little weasel that's always hanging around Valtair, right?" Niki asked.

     "He hasn't even got his pants on," Trevor said.

     Egoneg passed a young woman on the sidewalk. She wore a bomber jacket, and Niki counted at least six piercings on her face. She'd dyed her hair an interesting blue/silver combo.

     "Hey!" Egoneg called out to her. 

​     She neither looked his way nor broke her stride.

​     "Hey!" he called out to her again, and this time it was an out and out shout.

​     And he did something else, too. Something...

​     It was almost like he put a spell on the girl. It wasn't like he made any sorcerer hand movements or anything like that...

     yet still...

​     it was obvious it was Egoneg who caused this young woman to turn, look at him in terror, then take off running as fast as she could.

​     And then she got so terrified that she even forgot to run. She dropped to the sidewalk to claw at the cement like she could somehow rip it apart to hide in the bowels of the Earth.

​     Egoneg stood over her. "Strip naked!" he barked. "Right now! Do it now!"

​     Niki watched the woman go into a kind of seizure, she was so frightened. But she did it. She stripped off her clothes right there on the cold asphalt on a cloudy Seatrailia mid morning.

​     The young woman's nipples were also pierced, Trevor noticed.

​     Egoneg whipped out his dick to give it a few tugs, but then he pulled his underwear back up and wrapped his robe back around himself.

     "Bitch." He spit on her, then walked on.

     "Okay, I've had a gut load of this guy already," Niki said. "Let's go get him. Right now. Take him out."

​     The images withdrew from Egoneg and started down the four lane arterial that was Greatway. Niki saw one young man behind the wheel of his car screaming in terror at the top of his lungs. Another car was off the street altogether, smashed into a telephone pole on the sidewalk. Niki heard screams from every direction.

​     Then, gunfire.

     First one shot, then several, then a hundred. People got out of their cars in the middle of the street and ran.

​     Trevor saw a group of perhaps twenty, all colors, ages, and ethnic origins, form a pack on the sidewalk. Then, at its center, a gray haired man wearing slacks and a finely woven wool coat pulled out his gun and started firing.

​     The pack immediately disbanded.

​     "The city's dissolving into panic," Trevor said. "Egoneg's doing this?"

​     "Apparently," Pomimi replied. "I'm getting the same information you are, Trevor. That's your name, right?"

​     "Trevor. That's right."

​     "And you're Niki Creole," Pomimi said. "I wish we..."

​     "Yeah, fuck all that," Niki replied. "Let's go get this asshole and tear his heart out."

​                                                      CONTINUE