>>> 2015-03-01 13:09 UTC+10; At the location distress signal.

Lena vaulted over the final fence into the backyard just as another agent landed on the grass beside her.

Lena’s eyes widened. ‘Alex.’

Alex grinned and gave Lena a quick kiss. ‘Ready?’ she said, cracking her knuckles.

‘No,’ Lena shot back, but she followed Alex nonetheless.

The house was a single storey, and the back door was unlocked when Alex pushed at it.

Lena clenched her teeth at another pulse of power. The ache quickly passed, and she heard harsh voices deeper in the house.

‘Just admit it! You’re just gay,’ said one of the voices. ‘If you admit that, then we’ll let you go, sweetie.’

Lena grabbed Alex’s hands. Their powers were compatible; they were stronger together, and that made Lena brave enough to advance after Alex’s lead.

‘No! Help me!’ A scream cut the air and a distinctive magic rippled out. But it was weak, even with Lena’s hypersensitivity.

‘Oi! Pick on someone your own size!’ Alex cried out. They rounded the corner.

The two white-dressed Hunters turned to them, their eyes lighting up. Between them was a teenager, tears running down their face.

‘Let the kid go!’ Alex commanded.

The Hunter with the long hair—a woman, Lena guiltily assumed—smirked. ‘Why, if it isn’t the little aces. Are you turning yourselves in for Correction?’

Lena half turned her head. Her wolf bounded in through the wall like it was nothing; and it slammed into the Hunter Number-Two. He stumbled and Lena’s wolf buried its claws into white uniform.

The other Hunter drew a knife, dragged the teenager up to the tip of their toes, and pressed the blade into their throat. ‘Play nice, now,’ she said, still smirking.

‘Shit,’ Alex muttered.

The hallway was too small, too confined for their dragons.

Lena looked into the teenager’s eyes in silent apology and removed her hand from Alex’s.

‘Hunters! Terrorists sighted at ######%$#!’ crackled a voice from one of the Hunters comm-devices at their belts.

That was the distraction Lena needed to raise her hands and utter the spell that left her, and anyone around in a 5 metre radius, frozen.

Alex’s magic was compatible, though, and they had done this before; Alex was the only one who could move in Lena’s freeze-field, and she did, stepping purposely forward. She pulled the Hunter’s arm away, and slowly dragged the teenager into her embrace, and stepped them back and back and—

‘They’re in here too!’ a voice thundered.

Lena gasped as a reverse amp was set off, disrupting her field. The teenager cried out as Alex dragged them faster—away, quick!—from the Hunters. Lena tried to rally her wolf, but it faded away.

The Hunters pulled out identical guns.