You froze, and so did everyone else when they emerged from the portal behind you. You were all staring down the barrel of a giant cannon that you belatedly realized was connected to Mekara’s right arm! To her left, Aegis stood at the ready, his eyes glowing an ominous shade of red. You could feel heat building rapidly in the space between you.

But as soon as they recognized you, they immediately lowered their weapons and relaxed.

“Oh! Thank goodness you're all alright//safe//unharmed.” Mekara, glitching slightly as she retracted her gun back into her arm.

Aegis barked out a laugh, his eyes changing from red to blue.

“Say somethin’ sooner next time! We almost barbecued ya!”

The two were currently standing in a small crater, the remains of their foes lying all around them. Some were half buried in the dirt. Others were smashed into pulp or shredded to pieces. As your gaze traveled upwards, however, you noticed two figures staring down at you from the ledge of a rooftop that was parallel to Mekara’s right shoulder.

Ana and James both stood there, expressions of relief barely discernible through all the gore and black ichor covering their bodies. Ben’s huntress girlfriend swiftly folded and put away some kind of high tech bow with a string made of hardlight, and James retracted his bone claws with a slight wince.

“Looks like you guys managed to clean up just fine without us.” Ben remarked, staring around at the destruction, before his gaze finally settled on Ana.

Mekara reached up to where the two were, waited for them to step onto her hand, and lowered them to the ground safely. Ana stepped off right away and went straight for Ben, while you prepared to intercept the grimy blue boy.

“You are alright!” he observed, flashing a pearly white grin at you.

“And I did it all without being bathed in zombie guts.” you bragged, tossing a head full of silver hair.

His smile widened, and this time you returned his gesture.

“I'm glad you're okay too.” you admitted

He opened his mouth to reply, but something going on behind you had apparently grabbed his attention.

“Hey, Ana. I brought-”

Ben got no further than that, because Ana walked right up to him, lifted his mask up, and gave him a deep, passionate kiss. Ben’s eyes widened in surprise, and he let out a startled noise that barely managed to escape the vacuum seal that had formed between his and Ana’s lips.

You could feel your cheeks heating up, and you were about to turn away when you noticed Ana locking eyes with Louise over Ben's shoulder for a brief instant, all without breaking the lip-lock.

Louise’s expression could only be described as…“carefully neutral”, but you thought you noticed a slight twitch from the corner of her mouth as Ana closed her eyes and tightened her grip on Ben's back.

“Wow…” Mekara muttered, bringing up a hand to cover her own mouth.

(Cont.)