Phoenix stared down at the city of Chicago below her, keeping watch from a rooftop on her patrol. She heard the sounds off traffic, trains and, the echoes of faraway gunshots. She smiled. Despite it’s numerous issues and Jawal-attacks, she loved her city.

“Who would want to live here?” A voice asked with disgust. Her temporary partner, Firebird, said from behind her. She rolled her eyes and turned to him, careful to keep the disdain from her voice. 

“I would, Frank.” 

He tried to backpedal. Frank Marksson was an interceptor pilot based in Milwuakee who frequently helped the Chicago police force - where she worked. 

Despite this, his interceptor suit design was eerily similar to hers: orange, silver, equipped with fireproof materials, flight capable, and modified for marksmanship. His only original point was the gaudy wings on his back, a statement Phoenix wouldn’t even try to get away with despite her interceptor name.

She shook her head at him, diving off the roof and leaving him behind. 

He was a serious and high-minded man who wouldn't take no for an answer. 

She was too mature to hate him, but she would rather work alone than be helped by the Milwuakee interceptor.

”He’s good for PR.” Her department chief had said, as he absentmindedly watched the latest news: THE TROJAN HEROES: KENTUCKY FARM DESTROYED. ”Everyone’s fighting for bigger budgets now that these superkids turned out to be rotten eggs.” 

He gestured at the screen, sprinkles flying from his donut, “You know we need as much of that PR possible if we’re going to continue.” 

Felicia had shaken her head at his statement, despite it’s truth. Felicity Lawrence was one of the few interceptors partnered with public servants. 

Her success as an interceptor at the Chicago Police Department would determine if more sectors of public service would join the fight against the Jawal. 

Due to her successful tenure as a police detective, an unwavering moral standards, and sterling public reputation, she became the Chicago Police Force's best candidate for the Interceptor program. She quickly became a public figure: Phoenix. Personally, Felicia simply had a deep conviction about duty and loyalty to her city, and felt she would take on any other career path so long as the results served the community to the best of her ability.”

Her reminiscing was cut when her sensor flared to life. 

A Hole had opened a mile from their location. 

On their way, she waved at the cheering populace below. Her reputation in the Chicago Police Department preceded her, and she was once ranked the USA’s favorite interceptor by Interceptor Weekly. 

That same article had called her and her not-partner ‘Lovebirds.’ She sighed at the memory.

She followed her sensors to a towering parking garage, tracking it to the bottom floor. The familiar high pitch whine of a Hole opening put her on the alert immediately. Phoenix looked around. There were civilians running to their cars and running by foot to escape the looming chaos on a busy weeknight. They had to clear the civilians before the Hole opened.

Just as she was about to give the order, a round shot from Firebird’s volt splitter. It hit the Hole dead-center.

The resulting shockwave from the volt splitter’s blast meeting the portal shot Phoenix back twenty feet. The blast ripped through the integrity of the garage, and the groan of the structure snapped Phoenix out of her whiplash.

She scrambled up, shouting, "Everybody get out!" she yelled at the citizens in the building. She couldn’t see Firebird anywhere. “Where are you?” Phoenix demanded. She was furious at his actions, but needed his help to rescue anyone left in the building.

“On my ass.” A voice groaned in reply.

“We need to clear the higher floors. Put those wings to good use.”

Firebird cleared the top floors while Phoenix pulled people from the rubble and guided stunned survivors toward the exits. She almost comm’ed her partner her accomplishment when a frantic mother threw herself at to her arm.  "My daughter! Lily!"

Phoenix waisted no time and plunged back into the ruins. She found the missing girl trapped in a tight crevice between two collapsed barriers. As Phoenix arms pulled Lily free, something growled by her and she felt a mind-numbing bite at her side.

The interceptor screamed through grit teeth. She was quick to pull her gun and blast the Jawal to bits, adrenaline keeping her from contemplating the blood running down her side. Her vision hazed and breathing labored inside her helmet, she managed to return the girl to her mother through sheer willpower.

Phoenix was left kneeling on the floor, gasping for her breath.

I’m going to turn. She thought with clarity.

She fumbled for her cryogenic shot, but was cut short when a Jawal appeared out of nowhere and lunged at her face. She was going to die.

And then, an explosion happened a second time.