After a long flight home, the team arrived back at the base. Partly because the two flying members of the crew knew they wouldn't be able to carry their passengers for much longer, and part because one of them actually passed out due to the blood loss from his shoulder wound. Needless to say, they didn't want to waste any time. They were in desperate need of healing, and luckily for them, they did in fact have one team member that specialized in that.

They went far out of the city, the city lights being seen in the distance behind them, the area that they were in know was along the countryside where very few people lived. It was easier to not be noticed. At best, their closest neighbor was 5 miles away. A good spot to have a secret base.

The team saw a large-three story house, much to their relief. However, they could not hold up any longer, so the girls carrying them increased their speed. They flew in the direction to the floor, where a hidden entrance to their base opened. They slowed down for a few seconds before they reached and collapsed onto the floor. Phoenix and Absinthe's wings retracted upon impact. Footsteps sounded as a figure walked towards them.

"Oh my gosh, are you guys, like, okay?!" A feminine voice said as the figure helped them stand up, grabbing Frostbite's unconscious body in her hands, and she brought him to another room, while the others walked or were dragged right behind them. She laid him out onto a cushioned chair with paper, similar to what you'd see in a doctor's office. The others struggled a bit to make their way. The cool temperature didn't help their relief their pain much either.

The young woman who had helped them was dressed in seafoam green long-sleeved shirt which draped at her shoulders, allowing to see her bra straps, a dark brown skirt that ended at her mid-thigh, black stockings, and brown boots that matched her skirt. Her bright, golden, silky hair draped along her back. However, despite her beautiful features, the woman was distressed about the current situation, although she has seen it plenty of times. Hey, it can't be helped to be worried for your siblings.

She took off the boy's upper clothes, seeing the skin beat up, bruised and bloody. Nothing out of the ordinary for her, but she's still worried for him. Her sisters watched as she grabbed an aid kit, gauges, bandages, disinfector and the like, along with a pair of pliers to take the bullet out.

"Holy shit, Leni, it was crazy back there. You should've seen us on that mission!" Phoenix said and removed her mask, shaking her head, and revealing chocolate brown hair tied in a ponytail. She also had freckles on her face and sullen green eyes with a bit of brown surrounding the pupil and edges of the iris. Her right cheek had a cross scar over it, memory of the earlier days, it's barely noticeable now due to having gotten it years ago, so it's fade with age. Another went over her top eyelid into her hairline but was covered over by her bangs, it hindered her ability to see in that eye a bit, but she managed to work it out . This kind of work wasn't without its risks, after all.

"Like, what happened?" Leni asked.

"The place we were supposed to break into and steal information from turned out to have a shitload of guards there." Tomcat said, as she and the others also removed their masks. They all seemed tired and exhausted from battle, the injuries didn't help.

"Lana, language." Aristocat hissed.

"Jeez, sorry, your Highness…" Lana snarked, casting a glare at her twin.

"I, along with the rest of us, have spent 4 years killing and stealing and basically doing a bunch of shady work. A potty mouth is the least of our problems." Absinthe pointed out while taking off her mask as her bangs fell. She swept them aside to cover up her left eye to allow her to see.

"And Lucy saw some weird symbol on one of the suits of the guards' bodies." Laughingstock added in. "We're thinking that these guys are more serious business than we first thought."

"You don't say?" Phoenix commented. "We almost didn't come back, those guys are a big deal, Linc almost died to give us cover." She then faced Leni. "He didn't die, did he?" They've all made this long, and in this scenario they really thought one would be resting in peace, though they were lucky that was not the case. They could take care of very bad injuries, but not reanimate people. Not even their resident genius could do that.

Leni looked at their brother, and put her fingers to his neck. "No, he's still alive. I can feel his heartbeat in his neck."

"...I believe you meant his pulse, Leni." Vulpes corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"Good." Phoenix nodded. "The last thing we need is someone dying. These new guys, we can't take them alone."

"They definitely seem much more capacitated and well armed than most organizations we've faced so far." Vulpes said, grabbing part of the equipment from the medkit, to help accelerate the process by taking care of the two cats of the group.

"So, what do we do about them?" Tomcat asked as the little girl walked up to her.

"Best thing we can do now is rest, wait for everyone to be here, then we can discuss what we should do." Absinthe said.

"Yeah… but where is everyone else?" Aristocat asked, looking around.

"I think Lily went on her first real mission as part of her training, and Lori came along to help her." Leni replied, disinfecting Lincoln's bullet wound then grabbing the pliers.

"And what about Luna?" Luan leaned over so Leni could see her.

"I think she went on a mission too," Leni concentrated herself as she began pulling out the bullet from Lincoln's shoulder, and successfully doing so. She observed the small object, furrowing her eyebrows. "But I don't know where..."

Suddenly, another shadowy figure popped out behind them, scaring the living daylights out of everyone else in the room, who screamed out loud, except for the only boy, who was still out cold. Even Absinthe, being more used to it being the other way around with her popping up instead.

"Heh, you dudettes are such pansies. It's just me, Luna!" The figure chuckled in a raspy voice and revealed herself. She was a young woman of about 19 years old, clad in black spandex and very bulky purple leather armor. The shoulder pads had three thick metal spikes each. Her gloves were black leather with purple fur lining the insides, and the same went for her heavy winter boots. "Wow mates, what happened to all of ya?"

"A raid gone horribly wrong." Lynn grumbled. "It was supposed to just be a quick mission with just the twins and Luan, but it turns out we greatly underestimated put enemies. Even with me, Lucy, Linc and Lisa, they were overwhelming."

"Yeah. We never saw these guys before. Lucy found a weird symbol on one of the guards' corpse's uniform." Lana said.

"Wait, what does this symbol you're talking about look like?" Luna asked.

Lucy got up and grabbed a pen and notepad and started scribbling away at it. She drew the symbol as well as she could remember it, which looked pretty close to the real thing. The others looked at it and nodded, then handed it over to Luna. When she saw it, her eyes widened and she let out a gasp.

"Shit man, think I saw this symbol before!"

"Really? Where?" They all asked.

"It was a few weeks ago, back on the Fourth of July, the Ol' Carrot wanted me to grab some stuff in a casino."

July 4th, 2021

Royal Woods, MI, North Wing

New Lakes Casino

3:08:11AM

Game night on Independence Day, alongside a masquerade party, meant tons of people wearing masks over their faces, as suits and dresses covered the rest of their bodies, to try their luck in the various games the place has to offer for you to win or most likely lose your money. Big bets tonight, for one of the biggest casinos of the state.

It was a reunion of some of the richest and most popular people around, considering how they were dressed, and the values of the bets. From businessman to artists, and a few new faces that thought they could actually make some cash out of the place with the fortune their parents left, only to go back home with the thought they'd have to back to work.

An young man, son of the owner of the casino, loved to play, drink, and meet other people. Specially the 3 of them at the same time, one of them being a beautiful lady. He stumbled across the Texas Holden poker table, and he delivers a stack of bills he took from his pocket.

"Ten grand, counted," He said. The woman working on the table nodded, and gave him a pile of chips. He sit down, chips in front of him, and ready to play Almost instantly, he saw a young lady sitting by his side, with a pile twice as large, and placed it on the table.

"Twenty." She simply and coldly said. The girl responsible for the table checked the money, and delivered her the chips. After that, the cards were delivered. He got an Ace and a ten, both of Spades, and he decided he liked the girl on his side. So, he tried to start a conversation.

"So, what's your name, my dear?" He asked smoothly.

"It's a wolf mask, not a deer, are you blind?" She said, earning a few laughs. She was wearing a black and dark grey latex werewolf mask, its mouth permanently twisted into a toothy snarl with a long tongue hanging out from the side. She just focused on her game, while he gave an angry and embarrassed glare. A King and Jack of Spades, plus a Seven of Diamonds appeared at the table.

"Look girl, do you have any idea of who I am?" He asked angry.

"The spoiled kid whose father owns this place?" She asked ironically, without even moving her head. More laughs were heard. A Three of Clubs was turned. Only one more card after a role of bets.

"You don't know who you're messing with..." he threatened.

"Oh look, the drunk is pissed again, but he will still win with a Royal Flush. This place doesn't even try to hide the fact that it cheats, just like he can't hide his cards." She said, and at that point, nobody could hold their laughter. "I'm folding, and see if it's not a Queen of Spades coming next."

"Okay, listen up," He said. "You want to make me look like a fool, why don't you tell us who you are?"

She turned to him and grinned widely. "You want to know who I am?"

"Yes, I want to know who you are! So who are you?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked." She growled, and pulled out a guitar-like ax. "I'm the big bad wolf. Wow, this sounded better in my head."

The man gave her a look of confusion, then rolled his eyes. "Yes, I know you're wearing the mask, but I'm being serious-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence before the woman swing the instrument, making the man fly through the table, chips flying everywhere, and once he landed on the ground, everyone stared at her.

"I'm not here to play, dudes, I have a different reward in mind…"

Very faintly, she heard someone say "That's what she said." She spun towards them with an angry glare. But she didn't bother much. She quickly dashed through the casino until she reached the room where they kept their most precious values locked up, even before security could arrive at her location. She used her ask as a way to not so delicately burst open one of the many locked cabinets. A lot of papers were inside, as she began going trough.

"Nope… nope… nope… AHA!" She finally found what she was looking for - a list of codes to unlock the safes, crumpled and buried under all of the other files. She assumed that this was done to hide it, though anyone who was patient enough to go through all that stuff could find it just as easily as she did. Besides, greedy fat cats were the last person she would expect to pay much attention to anything.

She went over and used each of the codes to unlock the corresponding safes, going after a few specific items that the person that hired them asked for. She put them in a large beige bag, going on until the bag was nearly full of various trinkets and stacks of cash.

She walked out and was about to make a quiet getaway, but unfortunately, she never was able to keep quiet for long. Apparently, she had made enough of a ruckus to attract a large horde of security officers blocking her way out.

"DROP THE BAG AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" One of the men demanded. He and the rest of the aimed their pistols at her.

"Ah, shit…" She growled under her breath. She dropped the bag and raised her hands, while still holding her instrument of death. "I'll huff, and I'll puff…"

"DROP THE WEAPON!"

But she did not. Instead, she smirked. "AND I'LL BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN!" She shouted, as she strummed it as hard as she could, resulting in a soundblast strong enough to send them flying to the ground. "Oh man, this never gets old. Who'd say a fairy tale would be so fun?" She let out a deep laugh and made her way towards the exit. She saw them starting to get up, so she used her weapon's other function - being an ax, and swung it towards the bottom of the wall. Some material from above came crashing down on them, which she effortlessly dodged.

"Psh, too easy."

She turned around, only to notice that her bag of loot was missing. "Wait, what?!" She looked around and saw the culprits. Some figures that also had odd weapons and wore animal masks. She saw that they were a cheetah, raccoon, panther, and a bear. So, they stole her loot and the style of her family? Well then…

"Hey! Gimme back my loot, I stole it first!" She roared and ran towards them, guitar-ax hybrid in hand.

They stopped in their tracks and looked up to see the well-toned young woman in a wolf mask hulking above them. The one in the raccoon mask snickered. "Heh, whatcha gonna do about it, lady?"

"I'll put on a show, that's what I'll do!" She exclaimed, holding her weapon tight.

The one in the cheetah mask let go of the bag and sashayed towards the wolf girl in an equally elegant and mocking manner. "Well then, doggie, let's see just how big of a show you can put on." Her voice was smooth and for some reason oddly seducing in a way, though she assumed that she wasn't trying to be and it was only in her head. Still, this girl was one of those rats who dared to steal her hard-earned loot, and she wasn't going to stand for it.

"You asked for it, kitty." She raised the blade part over her head and brought it to the ground, only for the cheetah girl to sidestep it and move behind her with catlike grace. She took out her own special weapon, what first appeared to be a regular sword but extended into a long, sharp whip, and lashed it right near her ankles.

She let out a roar of pain and tripped, dropping her ax and falling to the ground right next to it. Luna could feel warm blood trickling down from there. "What is that thing?!"

The girl in the cheetah mask chittered a small laugh. "A whip sword. Gee, dogs really are dumbasses."

"What did you say?!"

"Hey, are we gonna take the loot or not?" A heavyset young man in a bear mask holding a very large sledgehammer asked.

"Hey, you're not taking my stuff!" Luna protested, struggling until she managed to escape the whip's grasp, despite the trickling blood on her ankles.

"Like you would stop us." He said. "Let's go!"

"Oh no you don't!" Despite the searing pain, Luna got up and picked up her ax, readying herself into a fighting position. The four others got into a circle and surrounded her, also ready to fight. The cheetah retracted the whip sword into a regular stiff blade, the raccoon took out some throwing knives and ninja stars from his belt, the panther took out a steel pole, and the bear held his hammer up menacingly.

Now, Luna wasn't feeling so sure. Her eyes shifted from one opponent to another, unsure of who to attack first, or if she should even attack in the first place. Sure, she was considered the brute of the New Law by themselves, but she wasn't exactly immortal and a 4-to-1 battle like this could very easily turn nasty for her. Just then, she heard a voice through her earpiece.

"What's the holdup, Bad Wolf? You had been expected to be finished with your mission and back at the base 30 minutes ago!"

"Uh...I had a few...inconveniences." Luna said. She didn't wanted to pass to the leader of her team that she was unable to handle this mission.

"Like fuckin' hell you do!" The raccoon masked boy hissed. "Now let's make it clear… you hand over the bag to us, and we let you get out alive, and go back to whoever you're talking to."

"Bad Wolf… what happened?"

"There are these people-"

"Disculpa, la hora de hablar se acabo." The panther girl said in Spanish, (even if Bad Wolf didn't comprehend what she had said) using the pole to hit the side of her head, and smashing the earpiece to bits. Bad Wolf fell over again, near the bag but clutching her weapon. She did not want to retreat, she often prided herself in being the only one on the team along with the Air Force to have never failed a mission in these past 4 years. Yet she knew that she had to make a decision, and quick.

Axe in hand, she strummed and let out another soundwave, knocking the four masked people back and stunning them for a bit, but they were obviously more resistant than the people she knocked out earlier. She grabbed the bag and ran as fast as her heavily-armored legs could carry her straight ahead. The boy with the raccoon mask started throwing the knives and ninja stars at her, being the first to recover. She managed to dodge them, save for one of the knives brushing past her right leg and cutting it. She didn't have time to pay attention to the pain, or the blood leaking from the wound.

She noticed the other three have already recovered from the stunt, and were already aiming for her. Seeing no other option at the moment, she placed the ax back on her back, turned around, and continued running for her life. It was a bit embarrassing, usually four people was warm up, but she couldn't do it. She didn't want to be dead, so she grabbed her loot, and dashed out of the place.

(End flashback, back to present time)

"...and those people had those weird symbols on their outfits too, all four of them, on the arms of their clothes! I didn't know there was more of them, and it has been a while since I've saw another one." Luna finished the story with an exasperated sigh. "And yes, that is why Lisa had to make a new earpiece for me."

"Wait, so only four guys took you down?" Lynn asked.

"Yeah, I know. Bogus, mate. But these guys aren't playing around. They are on our level, maybe even higher."

"Uhh, you said they had stuff like throwing knives and a pole. I have a glitter-zooka, Lisa has her acid gloves, Lincoln has an ice canon, and the rest of us also have weapons of much higher quality. And Lana throws urine at people, but whatever." Lola pointed out, scowling at the last bit. Lana just shrugged with a grin.

"Exactly, but boy do we have a big pole-tential threat on our hands!" Luan laughed.

"Like, I don't think this is a time to joke around, Luan." Leni spoke up, finishing wrapping the wound on Lincoln's shoulder with bandages. "And like, we've been trained almost all our lives, it's kind of a surprise to meet someone of our level after so long." She finished, letting Lincoln rest while she went over to check on Lola. Lisa had almost finished with Lana and would probably would move on to the others later on.

"I do agree with Leni." Lisa said. "This threat seems to be much bigger than any other faced so far. Surprisingly higher number of members to fight, and more prepared for combat. This could even be considered a particular army."

"So…" Lynn voiced, resting her chin on her knuckles. "We finally have a competition? Bully, a challenge." As she finished that phrase, a sly grin appeared on face.

"The fact that there's a force that can kill us easier thrills you?" Lucy asked. "We already lost a lot to people like them. We can't just let them be this giant force against us."

"Exactly, so we're gonna have to snuff them out as soon as possible!" Lola hissed. "And maybe improve some of our arsenal." She meant everyone, but she gave a special glare towards her twin.

"Hey, I say the piss-tol and jarate are very useful for making my enemies lose their will to live. And it's also pretty hard for them to come back after I've sunk my teeth into their neck." She bared her teeth, showing off the bloodied metal dentures.

"Lana, if you want to increase your chances to live while also find more barbaric ways to end an enemy's life, I strongly suggest you get an actual weapon instead of 'making it' yourself."

"You can discuss whenever you believe or not that Lana's arsenal isn't great." They heard a voice coming from the door. Everyone turned around to see their leader, in her usual attire, a tank top with a black jacket over it with khaki shorts and combat boots, on the entrance to the room, along with the youngest one of them, who quickly went to check into them. "Now, can someone explain why our brother is almost dead?"

"We've got bad news, sis." Luna informed.

"I've already realised that, Luna, but what are those bad news?"

"It looks like someone, or a group of people, is breaking the New Law, and being able to resist us."

Lori's eyes narrowed into a glare, and her mouth twisted into a scowl. "Who do we need to take out, then?" She demanded.

Luna looked back at each member of the group, each one, even Lisa, shaking their heads to show their answer. With a sigh, Luna pursed her lips before she managed to look at Lori in the eye. "We don't know."

"We don't know? What do you mean, we don't know?!" Lori took a few moments to calm herself down. "This is very bad news for us, if there are other people out there that can stop us. For all we know, dealing with investigating cops could be child's play compared to this."

"Well, yes… but still."

"Okay, for now, we can't risk ourselves that much. Nobody goes alone on mission until second order. If we're in pairs, they'll have a harder time to-"

"Lori, we almost didn't make it out there with these guys." Luan said. "And we had seven in our party! If Lisa didn't think fast enough, Lincoln wouldn't have even come back!"

For the first time on that day, or maybe even since they've began on this life, they saw Lori excitate. She froze for a few moment while the group just stared at her, waiting for her to speak up and order them around like she usually does, but nothing came. Lori lowered her head for a few seconds before looking back at them with a stern glare.

"I'm the leader here, I know what's best for us, and I say we'll no longer go alone, we'll go in pairs." She practically hissed, her tone cold as ice and her glare terrifying. "If you encounter them, flee, no questions asked."

"Flee?! You want us to run away like cowards?!" Lynn yelled, jumping to her feet with a scowl on her face.

"I'd rather see all of this team as cowards than miss some of us any day of the week." Lori affirmed. "I won't risk losing anyone. Pay extra extra attention to our surroundings at all times, and for the love of all things holy… do. NOT. Get. Cocky." Lori's voice boomed in the small room as her glare fell on Lynn. "Understood?"

"Oh c'mon, sure I've intentionally set off alarms to turn my mission into a Time Trial before, but-"

"UNDERSTOOD?!"

"Y-yes, Lori." Lynn whimpered and shrunk in her spot.

"Good." Lori coughed into her hand, having strained her throat a bit by yelling at her sister.

"...That won't work…" They heard a weak voice coming from the room. The white haired and only boy of the team was with his eyes opened, even if he was still laying down.

"Lincoln! Go back and rest. You shouldn't be up right now." Leni went over to the boy's side.

"No, really, listen to me. Everything you said… it won't be enough."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"These guys are the strongest around here…" he began. "At first, they won't mind, but eventually, our presence will hurt their business. That means they'll come towards us specifically to end us once and for all. We simply won't be able to run forever."

"So what is your big plan, man with the plan?" Lori asked.

Lincoln opened his mouth to say something, though he didn't seem to know what to say. Lisa actually said something. "We must find out as most as possible about this group, their members, hideouts, equipment, ect. After we have enough information on our enemy, and we're all healed, we'll have to work as a team, and all together." She made a pause to cough, as all of the sisters and brother faced her. "...and together...we'll have to run them out of their business, before they do that to us."

"That's… actually better than what I was gonna say, but still along the lines of that. Whoever they are, we gotta gather any info we can on them, and use it against them." Lincoln said.

The group erupted with chatter, turning to each other and discussing what they had just been told. Lori soon joined in as well. Soon enough, they finished talking and turned back to him.

"He's right. If Luna can't do it herself, and 7 of us can't do it together… we'll need all 11 of us." Lori stated.

"What if that's not enough?" Lucy asked, freaking everyone out by her suddenness, but they soon regained their bearings.

"It has to be enough." Lori said, earning the silence of everyone in the room. "And if it's not...we'll find that the hard way."

"The hard way meaning that we all either get exposed, get killed, both, or meet some other horrible fate!" Luan said. "I'm sorry that I'm not being my usual jokey self, but this is some serious shit we've been pulled into!"

"Look, everyone, we will make things work out. We've made them work for the last four years, and it won't be today that we will lose. Now, all of you, it's time to rest. If we want to take these guys down, we have a lot to work on."

Leni let out a yawn and checked her watch. "Yeah, it's pretty late, and I'm not usually up right now unless it's for an urgent mission."

"Yeah, I think we all need to get some rest. It's been a long night." Lynn said, standing up and stretching.

"Okay, everyone, to their rooms. Get as much rest as possible. We'll have a load of hard working nights from now on." Lori said. They did as they were told and headed off to their resting chambers. "Lincoln, you should stay here." Lori said and soon joined the rest of the sisters.

"Goodnight girls."