Navigating a forest without functional GPS was tricky, especially in the dark, but with their excellent eyesight and a few fortunate guesses, Lucky Nine largely managed to piece together the direction that Touchdown had run off in.
“Nyaaaarrggh!” They let out a noise somewhere between a groan, a yawn and a meow, while stretching fully. Once backwards, then forward, keeping their legs straight but reaching the soil with their clawed hands anyway due to their catlike flexibility.
“That’s quite the stretch you’ve got there,“ said Silver Siren. She walked through the forest alongside Lucky Nine, her heavy boots conspicuously quiet as they crushed dry leaves underfoot. She must have been using her audiokinesis to silence her footfalls.
“Oh, eh... thanks?” said Lucky Nine, a little self-conscious. “I don’t normally do it where people can see me. Tends to put off the normies.”
“Aww, but you look so cute doing it!” Cherry Charge beamed. The curvy girl’s hot pink leotard was putting off alarm bells in Lucky Nine’s cat burglar brain, but they supposed that at least the faded light of late dusk had made them a little less egregious.
“Well, don’t get used to seeing it,“ they grumbled, “I just really need it after I almost got gravity crushed to death.”
“I still can’t believe Touchdown lost a fight because of allergies, of all things,“ said Silver, “One of the Society’s heavy hitters, done in by sneezing.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even know she had a cat allergy. What are the odds?”
“I told you,” said Lucky Nine, grinning their wide row of sharp teeth, “super luck.”
It was strange hearing them say that without Emcee on the line to correct her. Something about the situation made the contrarian in Silver want to do it for her, but she thought better of it. “I guess you’re right. Let’s hope it lasts,” she decided to say instead.
“And even luckier, I can’t believe Emcee put a freaking nova on our team!” Lucky Nine continued. “Why didn’t you tell us, Cherry?”
“Like, what’s a nova?” asked Cherry.
“Well... you are!” Lucky Nine said.
“I don’t get it?”
“It’s a nickname for supers who... project energy, I guess.” Silver explained, “It comes from Lady Nova, she could store and release sunlight. She was a big deal in the 60s. Destroyed Baron Meter’s weather control device and leveraged her position as the first woman on the Global Guardian Guild to lobby for equal rights.”
“Wow...” Cherry said quietly.
“I know,” Silver smiled, “she was an inspiration to a lot of people.”
“I didn’t know you were such a nerd!” Cherry chirped.
“Huh?”
“Like, I just didn’t see it coming. You have the stompy boots and the cool girl jacket and everything...” Cherry saw the way Silver was looking at her and added “I mean, in a cute way! Geeky is the new freaky, you know?”
Before Silver could ask what the hell that even meant, Lucky Nine interrupted. “Don’t bully the team leader, Cherry.” They let out a small chuckle and winked, “Even if she is kind of a history nerd.”
“The trees are getting thinner,” Silver decided it’d be best to get back to the matter at hand, “We’re coming up on the mansion, I think. Keep an eye out for any magic, Cherry.”
“For sure!” Cherry said. Then, after a beat or two, she added “Oh, eh... about that...”
“Yeah?”
“Like, I saw some magic earlier?”
“What? Where?!” Silver said, drawing her guitar in alarm while Lucky Nine extended their claws.
“No, no, not here!” Cherry added hastily. “I meant like... earlier earlier. When I was cuffing Bob Cut.”
“Bob cu- you mean Branch Manager?” Silver asked.
“Uh huh,” Cherry nodded, “Remember that jewelled choker she was wearing even though purple is totally out of season?”
“Must be part of their uniform,” said Lucky Nine, stroking the fur on their chin, “From what you’re describing, Touchdown had one of those, too.”
“Well... it was magic!” Cherry said.
“That must be what Mayflower was using to control them!” Silver said, “Did you destroy it?”
“Nope,” Cherry said nonchalantly.
“What? Why not?”
“Oh, it was like... an oracle thingy. You know?”
“Let’s say I don’t know what an ‘oracle thingy’ is,” said Silver, slowly, rubbing the piercing in the bridge of her nose, “care to enlighten me?”
“It’s magic for seeing stuff.” Cherry said. Then, looking pensively up at the moon and holding a finger to her chin, she added “Or... hearing stuff, I guess, if you’re into that.”
“Oh, oracular magic!” Lucky Nine said, turning towards Cherry. “I know the basics.”
“Huh,“ Silver looked at Lucky Nine, bemused, “I didn’t take you for some kind of magic scholar.”
“Oh, I’m not,“ Lucky Nine laughed, “but I do know about security systems. Oracular magic is what you use to make surveillance equipment. Think cameras or walkie-talkies.”
“Or horoscopes, if you’re fun! But I’m pretty sure Astra is a boring nerd.” Cherry supplied. “No offence,” she added, giving Silver an innocent smile.
Silver decided not to dignify this with a response. “Tell me... if that necklace was some kind of... communicator? Body cam?” she tried, eliciting a nod-along from Lucky Nine, “wouldn’t that give you even more reason to break it?”
“Oh, no no!” Cherry said, waving a hand in front of herself as if to ward off the misunderstanding, “There was an oracle thingy, but like... a teeny tiny one.”
“Too weak to be full surveillance magic?” Lucky Nine asked.
“Totally,” Cherry said, “But I figured... it might still, y’know, go ping, If I broke it? And you put so much effort into that sneaking around, I didn’t want to Crocs all over your Versace.”
“Oh,” said Silver. “Thanks... I think.”
“Now the other spell...”  Cherry continued, “...I dunno. It wasn’t, like super strong, but it was for sure stronger than the oracle thingy.”
“That could be what was controlling them,” said Silver, as much to herself as to the other two.
“I didn’t see any other spells on her,” said Cherry, “so yeah, it’s totally possible.”
“That gives us a hell of an edge,” Silver said in a low voice. She held out her arm as they came up on a large clearing, signalling Cherry and Lucky Nine to stop. “We’re here,” she whispered. ”Stay careful.”
Thornborough Manor cut an imposing figure, its worn stone and classic architecture making it look like something ripped out of a gothic horror novel, a relic too stubborn to conform to the passage of time, standing in defiance of modern everyday reality. Compared to most offices in the city’s modest centre district, it wouldn’t have been anything remarkable in terms of height or square footage, but that was a notion that had to swim its way up the stream of Silver’s mind when looking at it here and now.
“Wow...” Cherry’s eyes sparkled a dazzling pink, practically glowing as she laid them on the time-worn edifice. “That’s so obvious!”
Lucky Nine shifted their own burglar’s gaze away from the building, pausing their mental deconstruction of the thing. “What is?”
“It’s the clock tower,” she said, flatly. Of course this thing had an honest-to-god clock tower. Silver briefly found herself wondering if it still worked. ”There’s a big old spell in there. Protective. Like, there’s no way it’s not that.”
“Right,” said Silver, ”that gives us a clear goal. Reaching that tower is our number one priority. Once we do, we can-“
Lucky Nine scraped their throat.
“Yes, Nine?”
“Not to question your experience here, but... well... me and Cherry aren’t exactly seasoned heroes.” Lucky Nine said, idly scratching at the bark of the tree they were peeking out at the manor from. “We’ve found a good number of clues here, with those weird uniforms and the necklaces... and now even the source of the anti-tech field? I just think it needs be said, we could report back with what we have and get some backup.”
“Go back?” Cherry stage-whispered, “but we haven’t done any of the stuff Em told us to!”
“We’re not retreating,” said Silver, “I can’t leave CM in there. And besides, I’ve got a feeling we have their weakness.”
“We do?” Cherry asked.
“The chokers,” Silver said, “Nobody likes being manipulated. If we break the source of Mayflower’s control, not only are we taking pieces away from her side of the board, there’s a very good chance we’ll be turning them against her, too.” She smirked. “I’ve read a few reports on mind controlling superheroes in Alba. Most of them got taken out by their own victims, in the end.”
“Alright,” said Lucky Nine, “but if I get gravity crushed again, you’re buying me a new scratch post. One of the fancy ones, too.”
Silver raised an eyebrow. “You don’t even like the fancy ones.”
“It’s about the principle.” Lucky Nine blew a tuft of hair out of their eye and cracked their knuckles. “Right then, let’s see what this haunted house has to offer. Cherry, you’re lending me your eyes. Silver, you’re lookout.”

Finding the closest entryway to the clock tower turned out to be less of a challenge than they’d thought. They saw one or two more people in black capelets and skirts wandering around the building’s perimeter, but between Lucky Nine’s cat eyes and Silver’s efforts to reduce the amount of noise they made, they managed to avoid being spotted.

“There we go,” whispered Lucky Nine when they reached a side door, “I saw one of them use this earlier, so it’s not a fake. Mages love their fake doors.” They took a small mirror from their pocket and held it up to look through the small window on the door at an inconspicuous angle. “Hallway’s clear. Any spells on the door, Cherry?”

“Oh yeah, like, loads,” Cherry whispered back. “But that’s everywhere.”

“Any idea what they are?”

“Abjurama-thingies? I guess?” Cherry shrugged. “I’m not an expert, sorry.”

“Neither am I,” whispered Lucky Nine, frowning at the door. “There’s not exactly a big market for magic home security, it’s hard to use by anyone other than the caster and it doesn’t play nice with electronic security. Or any amenities you’d want in a modern house.” They reached for the doorknob and tried it. “Locked. Of course.” They stowed their pocket mirror away in their suit jacket and exchanged it for a set of lockpicks, but when they tried to bring them to the lock, they slowed down until their hands were a few centimetres from the door, after which they turned back to the other two, eyes glazed over, hands still dangling in the air. “That’s weird... w-what was I doing?”

“Picking the lock...?” Silver said, confused.

“Oh, right. Right.” Lucky Nine said, sounding distracted. “Should get... back to...” but as they turned back to the lock, they slowed down again, froze for a few seconds and slowly turned back, passively putting their picks back in their suit jacket’s inner pocket. “That’s weird... w-what was I doing?” they asked. “and why does this situation feel familiar?”
“What’s wrong?” Cherry asked. “Aren’t you going to pick the lock?”
“I...” Lucky Nine looked at the lock, puzzled, then back at their hands, holding the set of picks. “Aren’t I?”
“Here, let me give it a shot. I remember how to do this.” Silver hazarded a light tap on the glass. It was an old building, so maybe... “Single paned,” she muttered, “good. She picked up a nearby rock about the side of her fist, weighed it in her palm and...
“Silver?” there was concern in Lucky Nine’s voice.
She turned towards them. Something was fogging up her head. It was almost pleasant, a nice break from the oppressive clarity she’d felt ever since going too far into the forest. Crap, she wasn’t answering. She’d been asked something... what was it? “Eh... what?”
“Were you, like... going to do something with that?” Had Cherry been standing there, next to Lucky Nine? Hadn’t she been on Silver’s other side? Silver’s eyes focused (had they been unfocused?) and saw her pointing at Silver’s hand. There was a weight and pressure on it... she was wearing one of her biker gloves, she didn’t remember putting it on. She was holding a... she did remember picking up a rock. But why?
“Is that what I looked like?” asked Lucky Nine. They were still looking at Silver, eyes wide.
Silver narrowed her eyes, trying to remember. “What you looked like when...” then she noticed the picks still in Lucky Nine’s hands. “Oh!” she said, keeping her voice down. “Oh, that’s... that’s weird.”
“Oh my gosh, you two are so silly!” Cherry giggled, forming a small ball of pink plasma on her fingertip and taking aim at the door, ignoring her two teammates holding up their hands and mouthing ‘no’ at her. “Here, let me try.”

[...]

“Whelp,” said Silver, holding waving her hand in front of Cherry’s blank eyes, “I think we’ve established a pattern here.”

“Interesting...” said Lucky Nine, “Frustrating, but interesting.”

Silver withdrew her hand when she saw Cherry’s eyes pull back into focus and gave her a little pat on the back, then turned back to Lucky Nine. “So we go near this door, and it just... resets us and turns us around?”

Lucky Nine considered this for a moment. “Well... from what I’ve seen... I’d say no and yes. Respectively.”

“Wha...?” asked Cherry, still recovering.

“It pulls some kind of trick on the mind, but... I managed to try the door, no problem.” Lucky Nine said, stroking the fur on their chin in thought. “And you tapped the window glass, remember?”

“Huh,” said Silver, “you’re right, I did. And Cherry tried to shoot something at it from a small distance, too. So it can’t just be about getting close.”

“Maybe it’s about... aggression?” said Lucky Nine, “Or breaking some kind of rule?”

“Maybe we could knock?” offered Cherry, who appeared to be mostly back to her senses.

“Too dangerous, it could put them on yellow alert,” said Lucky Nine.

“So what, this door just detects us wanting to breaks in and glitches out our brains?” asked Silver. “how do we get past that?”

“Hmm...” Lucky Nine’s left ear twitched as they glared at the door. “What would As- I mean, Mayflower do...”

“Have you talked to her about magical security before?” asked Silver.

“A little bit, but it wasn’t exactly her area of expertise,“ said Lucky Nine. “she liked hiding her things more than protecting them.”

“Em always says she’s totally hopeless at op sex,” said Cherry. When Lucky Nine gave her a puzzled look, she helpfully added “that means hiding your porn.”

Lucky Nine sighed. “So... first, I think you mean opsec. Second, no it doesn’t, it means operations security.”

“Oh...” said Cherry.

“Third...” they continued, “that... gives me an idea, actually.”

“Oh?” said Cherry and Silver, at the same time.

“It can’t be that simple, can it?” muttered Lucky Nine, sitting down on their haunches and reaching a tentative claw out to the floor, lifting an edge of the welcome mat that was marginally less coated in dust than the rest of it.

“Oh my god, it is that simple.”

Under the mat lay an old-fashioned iron key. Picking it up by the loop, Lucky Nine balanced it on the pink pad of their hand for a moment to feel the weight, then tentatively brought it up to the lock. It opened with a deep, satisfying clack. “I’m in,” they said in an exaggeratedly low, gruff voice that elicited an amused sigh from Silver.

“Nice job, Nine.”

“You did it, kitty-cat!”

“Right,” said Lucky Nine, stepping through the door and onto the creaky wooden flooring of a narrow hallway that looked like it had been designed for service staff.

“Whoa, gloomy much?“ whispered Cherry, looking around the ominous, cramped space. It was painted in cool, dark blues and purples and lit by wall-mounted candles.

“Completely clean, though,” Silver observed, inspecting a finger she just ran over the frame of the portrait of some long-gone noblewoman as they made their way down the hall. “that’s rarely a good sign in a lair, means there’s a lot of underlings actively coming through here.”

“And what’s with these candles?” asked Lucky Nine, “They’re kind of... off. Is it me, or is the colour wrong?”

“They’re magic, I’m pretty sure?” said Cherry, ducking her head as she stepped past an ancient hat rack with a broad-rimmed hat dangling off of it.

“Pretty sure?” asked Lucky Nine, “I thought you could see magic.”

“I can,” Cherry’s eyes turned brighter and softer hues of pink as she looked around the room, “but like, literally everything here is magic? It’s like spotting the leopard print top on a tiger print rack.”

“...huh, I guess that makes sense,” said Lucky nine. "hadn’t really realised that could be an issue.”

“That’s odd,” said Silver, “I could’ve sworn we’ve already passed this painting.”

“Right,” Lucky Nine looked over her shoulder, “it’s the same one. That is weird.”

Another minute of walking passed. They passed more candles. Another painting of the same noblewoman. Another hat rack. Candles. Painting. Hat rack. Candles. Painting. Hatrack. “So like... is anyone else noticing how we aren’t getting anywhere?” asked Cherry.

Silver gave a deep sigh. “This is some special magic nonsense, isn’t it?”

“Sure looks like it,” said Lucky Nine, scowling. “Stay here for a sec.”

Silver nodded and gestured for Cherry to stay with her. They watched Lucky Nine walk off to the door they’d come in through and disappear behind it. About twenty seconds later, a frustrated meowing noise came from behind them. Cherry stumbled back, startled, as she noticed it was Lucky Nine.

“Well... that’s a problem,” said Lucky Nine, leaning against the wall and digging in their claws frustration.

“Hang on, let me have a try,” silver said, looking thoughtfully down the hallway, “I want to see for myself.”

“There must be some kind of trick to it...” Lucky Nine said, more to themself than anything.

“I’m not seeing any magic...” said Cherry, “well, like, not any more than everywhere else.”

“Could it be an illusion?” asked Lucky Nine, “can those fool magic senses?”

Cherry considered this. “I’m not sure. I guess?“

“Hmm... if it were an illusion, what could we do about it?”

Have you tried jumping backwards in quick succession?” asked Silver, walking in from the opposite side to which she left in.

“Huh?” Cherry gave her a confused look.

“Why?” Lucky Nine matched it.

Silver shook her head, “Never mind. Must be from before your time.”

“We could break the wall?” Cherry proposed.

“Hmm...” Lucky Nine retracted their claws and looked down the hallway again, “put a pin in that.”

“Wait,” Silver leaned down to look at the claw marks left by Lucky Nine. “How long have these been here?”

“Oh, I left them right after you took off just now,” said Lucky Nine, “nervous habit. It happens sometimes.”

“Right after?” Silver thought for a moment, “Huh, I don’t remember seeing those claw marks when I was walking down the hall. Are you sure it wasn’t after I got back?”

“Are you sure you didn’t see anything?” Lucky Nine looked up at Silver. After a moment of consideration, their eyes widened and their left ear twitched. “This could be important. Let’s check.” They grabbed Silver’s wrist and walked further down the hall.

Silver, surprised, let herself be dragged along. “Eh... mind if I ask why?”

Lucky Nine stopped near another repetition of the painting of the noblewoman. “Look!” they pointed at the old but pristine stone, “no mark!”

“Oh... oh wow, that is weird!” said Silver. A beat passed. “what does it mean, though?”

“It means that this is not the same wall. Let’s check further ahead.” Lucky Nine dragged Silver past two more spotless sections of wall, Cherry following along, until... “Look! There it is again!” Lucky Nine extended a clawed finger at the mark they’d left earlier. “I’m going for one more round, just to be sure!”

Before Silver could say anything, they’d let go of her hand and took off at a four-legged feline sprint, coming back around just moments later. “yep, three blanks and a scratch again. It repeats every four cycles!”

“My gosh... but that means...” Cherry said, “I dunno what that means...”

Lucky Nine rummaged around their suit pockets some more and fished out a stack of paper.

“What’s that?” asked Silver.

“The manor’s building plans,” said Lucky Nine, flipping through them.

“How’d you get those?”

“Library. They’re publicly available”

“That’s amazing. Good thinking, Nine.” Silver smiled.

Lucky Nine smiled bashfully for a moment (presumably. It could be hard to tell their expression under the thin layer of feline fuzz) before scraping their throat and fishing out a page. “Here it is, just as I thought...” they pointed at a small square near the edge of the paper. “there’s four equally-sized corridors surrounding a room here.”

“So... you’re saying we’ve been going around in circles?” asked Silver.

“Don’t you mean squares?” asked Cherry.

Lucky Nine nodded. “Exactly.”

“But like... I don’t remember taking any turns?” said Cherry.

“Remember when we came in here?” said Lucky Nine, “that door played some kind of trick on our memories.”

“And you think something similar might be going on here?” asked Silver.

Lucky Nine nodded. “I’m not sure how, but it’s the best theory I’ve got. We haven’t really been stuck in an infinite corridor, it just feels that way.”

“It’s a good start...” said Silver, “but how would we break an illusion like that? With the door, just knowing about the trick didn’t stop us getting caught by it, right?”

“Hmm...” Lucky Nine stared down the hall one more time, “if it’s fooling our senses, maybe we can do something like...” they turned around. “Hey, Cherry. You can shoot energy, right?”

“I can shoot pink, yeah?” said Cherry.

“Can you fire a small one off down the hall?” asked Lucky Nine, “if it can’t turn corners, it might show us something new.”

“Sure thing!” Cherry pointed a finger down the hallway and a small pinprick of bright pink light formed just past her spandex-covered nail. Lucky Nine and Silver watched along as it formed into a thin beam and flashed down the hallway, leaving a small, smouldering mark in... in what, exactly? As the three of them looked at the sizzling spot, it was like pulling a magic eye picture into the right type of focus. In the face of overwhelming physical evidence that there was a wall in front of them, the Mayflower Witch’s illusion lost its grip on their senses, and suddenly the corridor was finite. Lucky Nine slowly walking down it, keeping the burn mark in focus at all times, before finally... touching the wall running perpendicular to the hallway they’d been stuck in. “We did it...” They opened the door at the end of the hall and turned around. “We can do this, guys. Her tricks are beatable. I think we can-” The door opened and a gloved hand shot through. Before they could react, Lucky Nine was yanked through to another room, and the door slammed shut. Silver sprinted after them as soon as she saw it happening, but opening the door just lead to another hallway, without Lucky nine, or in fact anyone, in it.

Somewhere else in the manor, out of sight and earshot of their companions, Lucky Nine found themselves staring into the smooth, designer-perfect features of Custom Maid. “Welcome,” a familiar voice sounded from behind the two of them. Lucky Nine froze up. It was her. Astra Mayflower.

“Whatever is the matter?” it continued, “Cat got your tongue?”