Andrea Montague stood in silence. It was a little after three in the morning. Usually, she would be asleep, but she was to meet with their "benefactor." She was unsure how it would manifest in this instance. Their last meeting had been performed through a proxy, which was a crimson crystalline statue of a bird delivered to her with a pre-recorded message. Their meetings were always so different from one another.

Her benefactor, in return for allowing her to "experiment" with the Stone they had so kindly donated to her, often asked small favours for Andrea to perform. She was all too happy to wreak havoc and property damage.

It occurred to her that she might not enjoy the position if something other than general destruction was asked of her.

She felt a dull throbbing in the side of her head, which signified someone was trying to read her mind, or at least drop some information in there. She sighed and altered the chemistry of her blood. The experimentation of the uses of the Bloodstone had garnered some interesting results. By melting down slivers and ingesting or injecting them, it altered the properties of the blood. Bonding them to bone created a crystalline structure underneath, which eventually protruded outwards in the case of Haem. In fact, Andrea was gearing up for another series of experiments where trauma was inflicted on the brain and the Bloodstone was taken as a healing supplement.

Her mind ceased wandering as a voice spoken directly too her, a voice that appeared to have no sound or tone.

She nodded, gently massaging her temples with crimson tipped fingers.

"That'll get done. Once we find the location of the robot-bird, we'll establish contact with you again." She paused, her mouth open to say something else, as she felt the cool wind creep through the window and brush against the cloth of her Emily the Strange Pyjamas.

"I'll work that into our experiments as soon as possible. I've never considered something like that before," she responded, the germs of ideas flooding through her head. A Bloodstone spire, or Bloodstone weaponry, grown from recesses or externalised areas on the body. Even more so, the ideas continued to flood her brain, the idea for Bloodstone technology...

She sighed to herself, flicking on the side-light of her bed-side table. It threw a tiny fraction of illumination on her otherwise black room. She opened her leather bound book, beginning to scribble down her ideas onto its pages. She didn't understand what she was writing down, but she'd give her book to their scientist in the morning, and she could make it happen.

Wondra led the way to the safe house; Billy began shaking his head slowly.

"What is it?" Cassie asked. Teddy was up ahead, carrying Star Sign in his arms, as Wondra did the same with the ridged body of Double Oh One. Teddy and Star Sign appeared to be deep into a fairly cheery conversation. The pair were laughing, and joking with each other.

"Her," Billy hissed, thumbing over his shoulder to Tarene.

"What about her?" Cassie hissed back, casting a sideways glance to the girl.

"I don't believe anything she says, publicly try and out her and she sides with me over magic with Wondra?" Billy tutted to himself, and moved closer to Cassie. "She confuses me."

"Same with the rest of us, Billy," Cassie replied.

"She's always on that phone, but she talks of Asgard like a real place. Which it is, I guess."

Cassie nodded slowly. "It is. I've met Thor."

"I've seen Thor. Thor is great. Nice bottom, but the point is...she's not very...Thorlike. Or even Thorlite. She's more like...Thor-loser, or something."

Cassie giggled into her fist a little, as Billy sighed and knotted his brows further.

"You know what I mean though," he said, shaking his head at Cassie's persistent giggling.

"I know what you mean. She's confusing, definitely, but it doesn't make her any less effective, you know?" Cassie countered, swallowing down her laughter.

"I'm not saying she doesn't have a place, what I'm saying is that I wish she were honest with us. Her power doesn't come from her hammer. There's nothing faintly godly about her."

Cassie paused for a moment, to re-tie her hair-band and push her golden strands into a pony-tail behind her.

"What if she is being honest," Cassie mused after a moment of silence. "We all have our doubts, but what if she is being honest and you're just wrong."

Billy snorted, and looked at Cassie with disbelief.

"Wrong? She isn't magical. Look at her. She's texting a boy wearing a T-shirt, a pair of hot pants and some leggings. Thor doesn't stroll around in cut offs and a shirt, does he?"

"Oh, so I suppose that means that Green Hulk things can't be gay?" Cassie retorted, as Billy glowered and crossed his arms. "You're stereotyping, Billy. Gods are Gods, they do what they want. Why can't she wear those clothes?"

Billy muttered something under his breath, and turned away from her, as Cassie slung her arm around his shoulders.

"I'm not saying you're wrong, you big moron, I'm playing Devil’s advocate. She might believe it, and what's to say that it isn't true…to her."

"I'm saying that. Me. The magician of the group."

"Guh. Okay. Fine, I concede," Cassie admitted, running a hand down the side of her face and continuing her pace beside him. After a few moments, he turned to her, his face drawn in empathy.

"Sorry. It just annoys me."

"Clearly."

"Sorry."

Wondra stopped up ahead. The group had been wandering through the forest for some time, heading away from the city itself, and towards what appeared to be just a large bank covered in grass.

"We're here," she said, pressing something on her wrist. A grass covered door slid from its resting position and upwards into the hill, to reveal a large lift inside.

"Should be big enough for all of us," she said, waving for the others to follow her in as she set Double Oh One down and pressed a few keys on her wrist display again.

The group piled into the lift, as Wondra was just about to begin their descent, she noticed that a member was missing.

"...Where the hell is that annoying blonde?" Wondra asked, glancing to Cassie and Billy.

"Who, Cassie?" Tommy joked, only to receive a slap in the back of the head.

"Still mad at you," Cassie stated, turning her side to the white haired speedster.

"Tarene...Where's Tarene?" Kate asked, gripping her bow tightly.

"She's...not here," Teddy said, turning around in a tight circle. "Did she get snatched without us noticing?"

"Phone," Billy ordered. Kate produced her mobile, and immediately tapped away at it, her fingers dancing over the touch screen until it touched her ear. She plugged her other ear with her slender finger and waited. "Tarene? It's Kate. Where the Hell are you?" she practically bellowed at Tarene. Tommy smirked, and nodded knowingly to Star Sign, who was watching in amazement at Kate from Teddy's arms.

"You did WHAT?" she screamed, her face flushing red with anger. "Are you mentally retarded in someway? Is there something desperately wrong with your mind?"

Billy mouthed a question to Kate, "What did she do?"

Kate shook her head and held her palm up.

"Come back. Right now. You don't need it, Tarene. For God’s sakes, for all we know they've been waiting for you, and you're walking right in to ambush...no, you won't be better and able to beat them with it. You're not an actual fucking God!" Kate screamed, as Billy made a mad fumble for the phone.

"Tarene? Tarene? Damnit." Kate pushed Billy back, her palm on his forehead, sending him wheeling into Cassie's arms.

"She hung up. Guess you offended her." Wondra smirked, as she was met with an icy stare from Kate.

"We're going to have to go back and get her," Billy said, shaking his head. "I can't believe she'd be so stupid!"

The others looked at each other in frustration. Wondra turned her back on the group, gently touching the dials on her wrist, calling up information on her holographic display. She was preparing to contact someone.

Her footfalls were soft, as she made her approach towards the cordoned off wreckage of their former flat and base of operations for the group. She took a sharp breath, as she slowly removed her shoes, and crouched down low to get the lay of the land. Her heart was beating violently as she tried to calm it.

She could see where the wreckage of her room would be, elements of her life covered in rubble. A half-torn poster of Thor sticking to a wall that was semi-stable, her dresser had ejected it's contents of underwear and jewellery onto the floor after the roof collapsed onto it, giving her wreckage a particular sheen.

She closed her eyes and clenched her fist as something vibrated in her pocket. If it was a text, she'd ignore it. She was busy now; the others might have recognised that she was missing. She needed to make this quick. It vibrated again, as she slowly pulled it from her pocket and pressed the green phone button to activate the call.

"Hello?" she hissed into the receiver. She held it away from her face as Kate yelled, only to pull it back in.

"Calm down, Kate. I'm at our old apartment. I've come back for my hammer. We don't have to worry if I have it with me," she whispered, covering the space between her mouth, receiver, and the outside world with her hand to prevent the sound spreading.

"It's not an ambush, I'm right here, there's nobody else around. I'm being quiet to be doubly sure of myself. Besides as soon as I get my hammer it won't matter. I could beat them on my own."

As Kate once again called her divinity and lineage into question, Tarene finally lost her temper and ended the call, stuffing her phone back into her pocket and getting to her feet with determination.

She shuffled quietly, beginning to lift chunks of rubble up, and searching for either her costume or her hammer.

"Well, well," came a voice from behind her, as her heart sank and her throat immediately dried. "We appear to have made the right choice."

Tarene swallowed a harsh, spiked lump in her throat and turned around slowly to face the voice. She balled her fists and grit her teeth.

"Bloodstones."

"Oh," the leader said, clapping her black net-covered hands together. "How delightful. We've been spoken of. Nothing bad I hope," she joked, looking to the other girls who all laughed on cue.

"Pathetic vermin," Tarene began, narrowing her eyes and reaching down into the rubble, rooting around for her hammer. "Following a false leader because you know no other way. The path you tread is filled not only with anger, but with self-doubt and deprecation. You are destroying yourselves to belong to this, and you will destroy yourself forever if you are to continue."

The leader snorted and clapped dramatically and slowly, offering a bow and an outstretched arm to Tarene.

"Bloodstones, we clearly have a thespian in our midst." She smirked, as the Red Crystalline woman stepped forward.

"I hate gays," she said as she leapt forwards, her gem-stone fists exploding into the ground before Tarene. The Asgardian simply side-stepped, ramming a fist full of rubble into her woman's face knocking her off balance.

Before she knew what happened, Tarene landed three blows to her midsection, forcing a tiny crack to appear. The woman looked up at the alleged goddess, as Tarene spoke to her in soft tones.

"I'm not a lesbian, you idiot." Thor-Girl delivered a devastating kick to her stomach, sending her flying back into the gothic Cheerleader line.

"Next," she said, softly. A few of the girls behind their leader shuddered, as the light of a passing car projected the strong image of Tarene before them against the wreckage of the building.

"Damnit. Don't just fucking stand there, you dickholes, kick her arse!" she yelled thrusting a finger forward, as several of the girls shot forwards. Tarene yanked the hilt of her hammer from the ground, and immediately brained the first girl charging her.

The limp schoolgirl bounced off the ground in front of her and landed prone in the wreckage.

"Sending kids to do your dirty work, Bloodstone?" Tarene taunted, whirling the Hammer around by the thong at the end of its hilt. She smirked, as the leader held up her hands, and stepped forwards.

"Asgardian or not, I don't think you realise the power of the Bloodstone," she began, as Tarene, in a moment of immaturity mocking what she said by jutting her jaw out and mouthing indiscriminate words, "Typical villain, talking in clichés now."

Overconfident, Tarene stood her ground as the Bloodstone Leader leapt forwards, her speed many times that of the supposed Asgardian. She managed, to swing her hammer upwards as Bloodstone’s fist crashed into the flat side of it. To Tarene, she was simply a red and black blur with pig-tails.

The gothic woman screamed in pain, as the sound of gem against metal rang through the night. The resounding impact shot through Tarene, breaking her wrists, and sending her hurtling backwards, smashing through the wall of the building across the street. The front of the brownstone crumbled and dropped its remaining load on the woman underneath it, burying Tarene in rubble, mortar and furnishings.

She turned to the others behind her, rubbing the broken skin of her hand softly, the blood seeming from the wounds instantly hardening and turning to crystal.

"Now we wait for the others to appear. Beat the information out of them, and go to collect our reward."

She smirked as she looked over her shoulder at the collapsed building. Her little group of girls behind her, holding up their damaged members. One by one the Bloodstone leader moved silently to her girls, touching the areas where they had been hurt and allowing the red light that flooded from her fingertips to heal them.

"Pfft. Asgardian my red ass."

At the back of the group, in reserved silence, as the girls began to sing and scream and cheer in victory, stood the Bloodstone scientist, Victoria. She ran a finger through her short red hair, and sighed quietly. She was separate from the other Bloodstones. Markedly different, as she thumbed the photograph in her pocket.

"Are you ready yet, Victoria?" the Bloodstone leader asked, running a hand over one of her bunches.

"Almost, Andrea. There's some things I need to check," she replied, her voice trembling.

"Yeah, just make sure you do. Otherwise our little deal? It's off."

Victoria nodded fervently, and gripped the photograph in her pocket even tighter. She'd do anything she could to keep her end of the deal up.

Anything.

NEXT ISSUE: FIGHT CLUB.

Author’s Notes: Well, this took far too long. Upon writing this issue, I remember why I had such a bloody blast the first time around. Hopefully, it won't be the better part of a soddin’ year before YA #3. This is something of a departure for me; it's a lot more character driven and focused on the kids than any insane high concept stuff. I'm giving it a go because the core cast is interesting and diverse enough to really shine and give a fun read - hopefully, I'm giving the guys a unique voice, or...almost unique voice each. So, I’ll develop that more over the coming issues.