"This brings back memories," Valentina said with a grin. Rowena looked back, question marks in her eyes. "You need to study your history books. This is the site of one of your dad’s greatest triumphs."

Rowena looked at the site again. In the pre-dawn darkness, it was a scene out of a post-apocalyptic horror film, complete with giant crater, half-finished skyscrapers, decaying buildings and critters scuttling unseen in the darkness. From their perch on what would have been the first floor of a building, the view was less than spectacular. "Please tell me the Parisian Institute looked better than this before you guys blew it up."

"The very picture of the modern era. It’s a shame the neighborhood never really recovered, though I suspect Gemeinshaft had a lot to do with that."

"How so?"

"No matter how hard they tried, people could never get the funding or permits to rebuild. Applications were lost; motions were held up in court; machinery would mysteriously break down. Not only that, but they had this place on lockdown for a full six months after the explosion. Gemeinshaft scientists crawled all over the wreckage and scavenged every bit of tech they could get their hands on."

"And now it’s in control of an Intruder-trained Shinobi," Wind chimed in. He folded his arms. "Attacking a gang of doped-up kids at 4 in the morning. This should be fun."

"Scared?" Valentina asked him.

Wind smiled. "No, I really meant it - this should be fun."

"Does he ever take anything seriously?"

"Not too seriously," Rowena said. "The way I see it, we have two options: we can try the sneaky approach, or a frontal assault."

"Do you have a preference?" Valentina asked as she unslung Mjolnir.

*toonk* was Rowena’s response. She quickly reloaded the grenade launcher attached to her G-36 and fired two more grenades in quick succession. They detonated with equally indifferent explosions, mainly due to them being comprised mostly of molten white phosphorus that blazed brightly and burned continuously upon impact.

"You missed," Wind said. "They all landed on the other side of the wreckage."

"It’s called strategy, Danny. Now they’ll be running towards us and away from the fires. That is, when they wake up." Rowena reloaded and launched more grenades - this time aiming for the various nooks and crannies she knew the gang called home. These exploded with a popping his and threw out noxious yellow gas. All three donned gas masks at this point.

"That should wake them. See you on the flip side." Danny hopped out of their improvised bird’s nest and dropped to the ground, sprinting to the first of Band’s gang to realize that their night was going to go from bad to worse. Valentina was two steps behind him, not because she was slower to react, but because she was taking her time. Rowena continued to lob grenades over their shoulders, most of which spewed noxious CS gas and gave the disenfranchised youth under Band’s command another reason to regret having a very active night life.

Valentina’s hammer flared into brilliance as she finally threw herself into battle. The poor sucker who first drew her ire had come up with the brilliant plan of attempting to brain the Amazon with a length of chain. ‘Tina responded with a vicious backhand slap that knocked him unconscious and sent the chain flying. She *twanged* the second foe with the flat of Mjolnir and finished off the third with a hammer to his knee. He finally stopped screaming when Danny kicked him in the back of the head.

"Finally," Rowena muttered under her breath when Thebian Band made his appearance. Like a god descending from the heavens, he stepped through the flames into the wreckage of the gang’s headquarters as his backdrop. A compound bow dangled from one hand and his sharp blue eyes scanned the area before settling on Wind. Rowena frowned, because she wanted his attention. With all the subtlety of a Simmons-trained Enforcer, she flicked the safety on the G36 and fired a 21-round volley at Band.

It got his attention.

For all Rowena’s skill and training, she might as well have been firing in the opposite direction, as Band dodged every single bullet, then climbed the wall behind him and began traversing the crumbling rooftops to close in on her position. She lobbed a frag grenade in his direction (which he dodged) followed by another gas grenade (that he ignored as he ran through the mist) then ducked his return fire, politely ignoring the fact she had almost been killed by arrows.

"Good God, you’re fast!" she exclaimed, realizing that Band had already covered half the distance. She fired a three round burst, drew out her grapple gun and fired, ascending to the next floor of the skeletal building in seconds. Band changed his direction and scuttled up one of the I-beams, dodging her fire all the while. She backpedaled while firing, precariously balanced on the narrow beam, even as Band charged her, moving as if standing on flat earth. His arrows were starting to come uncomfortably close and Rowena was beginning to realize she was at a severe disadvantage.

Before she knew it, Band was standing in front of her, arrow drawn and aimed at her forehead.

"Gotcha," he said.

She smiled. "Think fast."

She fell to the side, plummeting to the ground, and the arrow grazed her ear. His eyes followed her down...down... He noted the grenade at his feet and smiled the arrogant smile of a man who could count the shrapnel of an expanding grenade as he casually dodged the blast. Then the flash/bang went off, and none of his training or tricks could compensate for the sensory overload that occurred.

Unfortunately, Rowena lost her grip on the G-36 on the way down, but in her defense, the gun only had 6 rounds left, she didn’t have a reload and she had been otherwise occupied, firing the grapple gun and tending to her wound. Besides, the G-36 was just step one.

She drew twin Five-seveN’s from their holsters.

It was time for step two.