Georgia lay slumped against the wall, her eyes closed. A splatter of blood dripped down the wall behind the girl's head. A baseball-sized ball of red energy sizzled in the middle of the floor, casting harsh light on the train car around it.

“It seems we were successful in splitting up that little posse,” chuckled Ray. “Eliminating them should be a piece of cake now!”

A stand appeared behind Ray. The stand had a large glass fishbowl for a head, a body patterned like a starfield, and a plastic ray gun replacing its right hand.

“Wait,” said Tolk. “Something's not right here. She was panicking a second ago when Astroworld took the lights out. But right now, Burzum can't sense any movement on the other side of this car – not even breathing. It's possible... we've already killed her.”

“Yes, I suppose that wouldn't be too ridiculous,” sighed Ray. “From what we saw at Stonehenge, this girl is powerful, but very fragile. Your Burzum is pretty weak, but if she was caught off balance, it's certainly possible she died when she hit the door. Still... I can't help but get the feeling that something fishy's going on here.”

“Well... I suppose if she's already dead, she won't mind a bit of mutilation, eh Ray?”

Tolk pulled a large knife from behind his back. He tossed it to the side. A claw appeared out of the shadow of one of the seats, and caught the knife. The knife was pulled into the shadow, where it disappeared. Georgia sat on the ground, with Shattered Dreams floating in front of her. Her eyes were open. She was holding her breath. There was no blood behind her. A knife-wielding claw crawled out of the shadow behind Georgia's head. It slowly brought the knife up to Georgia's face. The girl stared in a panic as the knife cut down her forehead. The knife inched ever closer to Georgia's left eye. Georgia gasped and rolled away from the stand. Georgia moved into the shadow of the seat – none of the red light from the burning orb reached her skin.

Tolk smirked. “Gotcha!”

A mass of hands grew out of the shadows and rushed to Georgia. The teenager scrambled backwards, into the corner of the train car.

“Shattered Dreams!”

The glass stand became visible, floating next to the red orb. Shattered Dreams held out its arms, projecting the light of the glowing ball towards Georgia. Bright-red lines of light appeared on the walls & floor of the train car, creating a ring around the girl. Burzum's claws swiped at Georgia, but stopped short at the light. The claws looked around, seemingly confused. Georgia panted heavily.

“Hmm... that glass sculpture stand is certainly tricky,” said Tolk. “Still, this shouldn't be too much trouble. Ray, will you do the honors?”

Astroworld walked up to the red ball on the ground. It kicked the ball into the air. The red lines around Georgia wobbled a bit to compensate for the moving light source, but didn't disappear. Astroworld's ray-gun hand nudged the ball. The orb began to orbit around the stand.

“A bit of a shallow orbital inclination for my liking, but it'll do…” muttered Ray.

Astroworld sauntered up to Shattered Dreams, which was still holding its arms out towards its user.

“Barnard's Star is a red dwarf roughly six lightyears away from Earth,” said Ray. “It has a radius of around a fifth of our sun, and a temperature of 3,134 Kelvin. Obviously, Astroworld isn't able to copy Barnard's Star exactly – if it could, we would all be dead. Still... even this scaled-down version can pack quite a wallop.

Astroworld stopped next to the glassy stand. Shattered Dreams turned around to punch Astroworld. Astroworld grabbed its fist. The baseball-sized star crashed into Shattered Dreams's shoulder, melting and shattering it. Georgia's shoulder was torn apart, reflecting her stand. The glowing lines protecting Georgia flickered briefly, but returned to being whole before Burzum could get through. Shattered Dreams stepped backward and wound up for another punch. Astroworld dashed forward. Shattered Dreams jumped away. Astroworld grabbed one of its opponent's legs. The star orbited around and tore through Shattered Dreams's knees, breaking the stand's legs in half. Georgia's legs were severed in kind.

As the girl's legs flew into the air, they blocked part of the projected light. Burzum rushed to Georgia, through the new connection in the shadows. The hands grabbed Georgia's maimed body, and pulled her into the shadow on the wall. Suddenly, Georgia appeared underneath the train. Blue sparks flashed around the wheels. The hands pushed Georgia's face into the tracks, tearing her cheek apart. Shattered Dreams appeared next to Georgia and punched at the hands, but they didn't seem to take notice. A nearby wheel sparked blue, briefly bathing Georgia's face in light. The hands retracted back into the bottom of the train, dropping their captive. Shattered Dreams grabbed onto the car, saving its user just before she hit the tracks below.

“So... this stand is afraid of light... including tiny sparks?” muttered Georgia. “I suppose that probably means he didn't drag anyone else onto the tracks... still, this duo is going to be tricky to take out.”

Georgia climbed out from under the train, blood dripping from her severed legs and peeled-off cheek. She peered up to the train window. It was completely dark inside.

“Burzum can detect movement, but it was lost when I was in a ‘different shadow’ from it,” said Georgia. “If I project some stored light from the sparks backward while projecting an illusion forward, I should be able to keep either opponent from seeing me!”

Georgia and Shattered Dreams jumped through the window. From the front, Shattered Dreams displayed an image of the broken window and nothing else. Behind Georgia was a grid of blue light, projected to protect her shadow from Burzum. Besides the blue projection, the room had very little light – the red glow from Barnard's Star was missing. Georgia saw Ray, Astroworld, and Burzum standing by some seats in front of her, completely confused.

“Yes! I've done it!” thought Georgia. “I made it back without detection!”

Suddenly, a knife stabbed into Georgia's back, and tore across it down her right arm. Tolk stood next to the window, posing with the bloody knife.

“Your ability to make illusions is quite annoying…” taunted Tolk, “But if your stand can only fool people standing in the same location, it's just a piece of shit!”

“Now, Astroworld! Copy the star Bellatrix!”

A blue ball inflated on the tip of Astroworld's gun-hand, until it was over two meters in diameter. The energy orb launched forward. Shattered Dreams put up a block. The star blasted off the stand’s left arm, before arcing around and landing in the corner of the train car. Georgia landed on the ground, her body in ruins.

Tolk Giger sat in a brightly-lit prison cell, alone. The window on his door slid open. Tolk looked up. A woman with blue hair stood outside the cell.

“Yeah, what is it now?!” spat Tolk.

“Tolk Giger,” said Michaela, “For the past two years, you have been attempting to create... chimeras. You kidnapped and killed six people, and defiled their corpses by sewing their body parts to animals. All with the goal of advancing life to its perfect form.”

“Look, lady, can we hurry this along?”

Michaela Newton took a pause at this. “...Pardon?”

“No offense, but I'd rather chew off my own ears than listen to some close-minded holier-than-thou hag prattling on. I don't need another pea-brain lecturing me on how crazy I am, or how I was wrong to push the boundaries of life!”

“You misunderstand the point of my visit,” sighed Michaela. “I'm not here to judge you on your sanity. Granted, I do believe your actions were wrong... but only in the sense that combining animals with humans won't create perfection.”

“And just how the hell could you know that?!”

Michaela held up a small rock.

“I know... because perfection already exists. And uneven forces can never achieve true symmetry.”

The rock crumbled into pieces, until only a key remained in its place. Michaela brought her hand down below the window. A click sounded throughout the room. Michaela turned away, heels tapping against the floor.

“Meet me on the outside – if you can make it there, that is.”