"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could" - Nick Fury

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"So, first off, I want to make sure we're all in agreement that we're not gonna make the guy who threatened to burn us all alive a High General," Adrian brought his hands together, looking around at the others. They all silently nodded their agreement. After Nelson left, Juliana had joined the other members of Project PROB up in the balcony- with the chamber packed full of media personnel, it was they only place they could get a semblance of privacy to discuss their next steps. 

"I can't believe it," Hayley shook her head. "After all these years, a Nebulik...three Nebuliks." 

"You never banish someone. You can kill and get away with it, but a banishment always comes back to bite you," Chase shook his head as he pulled his Numbers helmet out of the custom sling he used to carry it around. 

Juliana felt a twinge of guilt in her stomach as she looked from Hayley to Chase. They were neither High Generals nor Ministers, yet they had come to the conference to support her. Now, their lives were once again in danger. "What are you doing?" she asked as Chase fitted the helmet over his head.

"Using my x-ray vision. I want to make sure Nelson- Nebulik- isn't just making empty threats." 

"Well?"

"Bad news, guys," Chase's hands dropped to his lap as he surveyed the scene. "We've got Farrah behind this door, and Felix behind that one," he began, gesturing to the exits on the right and left sides of the room. "And in front of the building, I see... some kind of artillery? No, they're not tanks, the dimensions are all wrong..." 

"Do they look like this?" Juliana pulled out her phone to show Chase a picture. 

"Um... yeah. How did you know?" 

"Oh no," the Queen squeezed her eyes shut. "No, no, no, this can't be happening!"

"What? What is it, Jules?" Adrian asked, looking concerned. 

"A year ago, Max Thornton asked for my help to test his new line of military equipment. There were your standard bombs, guns, and armor, but there were also... other things. Innovations in the science of death- things I would never in a million years put Arcanese soldiers up against. Things that, if I may be so blunt, E. L. Thornton would not be happy to know his company is producing. I made Max promise he would never sell them unless a true emergency arose..." 

"Is that what's out there? Is Thornton a bad guy- is he working with Nebulik?" Hayley gasped. 

"Now, I wouldn't go so far as to call him a bad guy, but he is a capitalist. A little moral ambiguity wouldn't keep him from a multi-million dollar deal," Juliana commented. 

"So Nebulik's prepared for the possibility of us fighting our way past his niece and nephew. If we walk out the front doors of this building, he's going to mow us down like grass," Adrian scowled. 

"Alan Nebulik has turned his weapons on me, members of my government, and innocent Arcanese citizens," Juliana turned toward the balcony, now addressing the crowd. "This is an act of war, and Project PROB will respond in kind!" 

Amidst the cheers of relief from the crowd, Hayley tapped Juliana on the back, looking mildly afraid. "There's four of us against two Red Knights of Nebulik, whatever legendary weaponry is out there, and possibly Ravenna. How are we going to do this?"

"Have we really been busting petty criminals and attending store openings for so long that we've forgotten who we are? Why we exist? The first Project PROB was created for the explicit purpose of taking down Nebulik and his Red Knights. We protect the Alpha Box, and we protect the people of Arcana. No matter where our enemies come from, no matter what they say about us, and no matter what they try to use against us." Juliana gave her bracelet a tug and watched as her Crimson Angel suit washed over her body. She turned her head to see the others behind her doing the same. 

"Go Project PROB!" Hayley whispered, a small smile gracing her face as she cracked her whip. Even she was tense. 

"If we can get out of here, Nebulik will no longer have any reason to hold any of them hostage," Juliana gestured to the crowd. "So that's the objective: getting out of here. Chase, from what you described, all the Thornton weapons are mounted on carcopters. I doubt Nelson has any actual carcopter pilots on staff, which means they're probably all under remote control. I need you to find the central computer and shut them down- the weapons are obviously much less dangerous when they aren't mobile. Adrian and Hayley- do you think you two could take Felix and Farrah?" 

They nodded their assent, but before Juliana could continue, Hayley interjected. "What about you?" 

"Of the four of us, I know the most about the Thornton weapons. I'm going to go take as many of them out as possible." 

"Absolutely not!" Juliana felt Adrian's hand clamping down on wrist. His thick Obsidian Hunter gloves made his grip almost impossible to escape. "Why do you have to be such a hero all the time? Don't you realize that you're a queen without an heir?" 

"I realize that if we don't do something about this, I might not be a queen anymore," Juliana said coldly, thinking back to Harry's haunting words. This got everyone quiet. 

"The central computer's in Nelson's house. Give me a couple of minutes and I can probably get in," Chase said. While the others were talking, he had pulled out his laptop and was typing furiously, manipulating his probability of correctly guessing passwords as he went. 

"Wait..." Juliana trailed off as something clicked in her head. "Houses in Arcana City with basements... that's where Maddie Thornton is! Nelson's been keeping her in his basement!" 

"Well, we've got to rescue ourselves before we rescue her, now, don't we?" Adrian noted wryly. 

"Don't worry," Juliana said, more to reassure herself than him. "We will." 

Before she could act on her statement, the door to the chamber creaked open and its occupants watched intently as a megaphone was pushed through the crack. "Come on, now, my uncle is a very busy man and he hasn't got all day. Have the ministers finished their deliberations? You'd better get to it or the police will have a very hard time identifying all the burned bodies." Somehow, this threat sounded odd in Felix's voice- the chubby, soft-spoken intern didn't look like he would hurt an ant. Reflecting on Nelson's manipulative nature, Juliana imagined what it would be like to live with a man like him. For a brief moment, her anger toward the young Red Knights was replaced by pity. 

"Well, I suppose that's all the planning time we get," Adrian shrugged, throwing his mace over his shoulder as he looked over at Hayley. "I'll take Felix, you take Farrah. We have to go at exactly the same time so they don't have time to warn each other. And Juliana... please don't die." 

"Your concern moves me, Commander," Juliana smirked as she pulled Adrian into a tight hug. "Good luck, you gremlins," she said quietly as Adrian and Hayley hurried down opposite flights of stairs to the floor. 

"And you... you'll watch over my Ministers, won't you?" Juliana asked.

"To the best of my ability, my Queen." Chase put his laptop down on his chair and approached Juliana. "But I'm afraid I must reiterate Adrian's advice... I'd like to see you alive at the end of this." 

"So would I, but I must-" 

Chase cut her off with a kiss, cupping her face in his hands. "Just don't die... or I'll kill you." 

"I'll do my best," Juliana stepped away from Chase, quickly making her way down the stairs. She was afraid that if she allowed herself one more moment with him, she wouldn't be able to do what needed to be done. 

"3...2...1..." She heard Adrian counting down in her earpiece before the doors on both sides of the room simultaneously swung open. Realizing that most of the crowd was congregated by Adrian's door, Juliana followed Hayley into the hallway outside. 

Hayley had managed to catch Farrah by surprise, grabbing her from behind and pulling her whip taut against her throat. "Should've known... you guys... would rather risk your lives than give any kind of power to a lowly Nebulik," Farrah managed to spit out as she struggled, bending forward to pull Hayley off her feet before throwing her backward with a burst of hot air that singed the fabric of her suit. This altercation gave Juliana just enough time to sneak through the small hallway. 

Juliana tended to allow Parliament to manage itself under the trusted leadership of Lord Hewkin, so her memories of the State Building were mostly from her childhood. She remembered being led along this very hallway by her grandfather, pausing every few steps to gaze at the portraits of various historical statesmen that adorned the walls. 

"Hello there, little princess." A tall man in a tweed coat patted the top of her head, placing a chocolate in her palm. 

"Thank you, Prime Minister Evarbor!" Juliana exclaimed as she examined the rare treat. As soon as the Prime Minister was out of sight, the King ripped the candy from her hands. "Sugar is bad for your health," he snapped as he crushed it under his heel. 

Farrah's comment replayed in Juliana's mind as she made her way to the building's impressive high-ceilinged lobby. Arcana's nobility would rather risk their lives than do a lot of things. She wondered for a moment what would've happened if she had been raised differently- in a more open and accepting environment. If she really thought about it, what Nelson was doing wasn't so different than the tactics she'd seen a lot of politicians, including her grandfather, use. Was her judgment of him tainted by the horror stories she'd heard about his ancestors? Was he right to call her tyrannical and unforgiving? 

Stop it. He's getting into your head. Juliana steeled herself as she pushed open the building's double doors. 

The scene outside was just as bad as she'd imagined it. A line of carcopters with the Thornton Tech logo emblazoned on their sides filled the entire street and a curious crowd, obviously unaware of what was going on inside, had gathered to watch. 

"Hey, it's the queen!" someone shouted, and for a moment, Juliana was grateful for the line of armed carcopters that separated her from the crowd. One particularly brave- or particularly stupid- man ran up to one of the carcopters and attempted to climb over it. Before Juliana could yell for him to stop, his foot made contact with the vehicle, activating its sensors and spurring it into action. Helicopter blades pushed their way through the roof of the otherwise normal-looking car and began to spin, rapidly picking up their pace. 

"What the..." the man stepped backward. "What is that thing?" His jaw dropped just seconds before he slumped to the ground, motionless. It took Juliana a moment to realize what had happened to him: the blades of the carcopter weren't just spinning. They were slowly cutting away at the column of glass on its roof, sending tiny, deadly sharp slivers flying in all directions. Juliana ducked and covered her face with her armored arms just as blood began to pool on the ground from the shard lodged in the man's neck. 

The first carcopter appeared to have started a chain reaction, as its neighbors too were now beginning to reveal their spinning blades. 

"Everybody, get back!" Juliana screamed, recognizing that flying shards of glass were indiscriminate killers. She ran to the first carcopter, vaulting onto its roof and crossing her gauntlets over her face. Closing her eyes, she began her work. Trajectory probabilities were the first kind she learned to manipulate- how to divert a bullet, how to perfectly catch objects thrown to you. Yet, there were so many pieces of glass and they were flying too fast. She was able to draw most of them to her, watching them glance uselessly off her gauntlets, but too many of them were still flying into the frightened crowd that was quickly retreating behind cars, trees, and anything else that could offer protection. Juliana hadn't been out here for five minutes, and her probability manipulation endurance was already running out. She needed a new strategy. 

Dropping to her knees, Juliana lied down on the cool metal roof of the carcopter. She could see the metal blades spinning just inches away from her... blades that could cut her to pieces if she made a single wrong move. She saw the column of glass underneath them, concentrating so hard that everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Her leg swung outward in a planned arc, kicking over the column before retreating to safety. She heard a smattering of applause from those in the crowd who realized what she'd done, and despite herself, she felt a smile rising to her face. Yet, her excitement quickly disappeared when she looked down the street at the line of carcopters that loomed before her. One down, nineteen to go.