"So let me get this straight," Arthur said, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

“We're facing a ancient enemy of unimaginable power and indeterminate goals that probably wants to drive as many people as possible completely insane and we're not sure why."

"That pretty much . . . sums . . ." Tarloh had begun to reply. But the meeting had been interrupted by a . . . a buzzing sound. It had been faint at first, like white noise. Then it had built and crescendoed to a feverish hum until suddenly it burst into the room on the wings of millions of insects. And they were no ordinary insects . . . they consisted of nothing but burning hellfire, churning wings and teeth . . . oh so many teeth.

"HellSwarm!" Tarloh shouted.

"Where the hell were the sirens?!?"

Shield was throwing up his magical force walls between the swarm and the grouped Strays when he replied, “I don't know! Everything was in place just an hour ago!"

The Swarm consisted of millions of hungry mouths, but those mouths served a single purpose. Like a pulsating arrow, they shot towards Red, eating there way into the shimmering force shield that now separated them. It was obvious to all what their target was.

"What the hell . . ." Red mumbled. ALL the lycanthropes began to morph, though none were sure why. A HellSwarm was a demonic foe that was generally not fought . . . merely experienced. To raise arms against it was like threatening to attack an earthquake. The swarm had no reason and no rhyme, and anyone who knew of them realized that someone called in a lot of favors and paid a terrible price to unleash one.

Talia was afraid for her friend.

“Red, get out of here! They were sent for you!" She knew it was a useless attempt . . . Red would never run.

Natasha was wondering what she had gotten herself into, but moved to guard Red out of instinct. Protecting people was her job, and she had added incentive where THAT particular woman was concerned. She almost grinned, wondering what those little insects would think, assuming they were CAPABLE of thought, when they bit into Nat's skin and broke their little fangs.

Arthur was feeding what energy he could to Shield, but both were quickly approaching exhaustion. Mindy was near her friend and lover, trying to support him. Everyone else was arming themselves, including a clever few who were gathering aerosol cans and lighters from the supply closet.

Red looked over at Jane. Jane already had that wild look in her eye... the one she got when she or her friends were threatened. Natasha noticed it as well, and it chilled her blood almost as much as the Swarm itself. Jane's mind was so close to snapping that the two women could feel the tension.

Jane's hair unbraided itself and thousands of strands extended their reach as she strode forward, just as the shields began to crack and the Swarm started coming through. The Swarm was used to overwhelming its prey, but Jane posed a unique problem. Her hair was an army all by itself, and it began snapping and whipping through the air, ripping the swarm apart as it started to come through. And what no one knew was that although the Swarm would normally devour its goal and anything that got in the way, it had certain restrictions placed upon it that evening . . . Jane was not to be harmed.

"Sweet Jesus," Natasha said, watching the young woman wander towards the encroaching menace like a weed-whacker from hell.

"Where the heck did she come from?"

The floor was strewn with corpses, many of which were lit on fire by the strays. The members of the Swarm that got through the crumbling shields and passed Jane headed straight for Red and while many were intercepted, some got close. Dozens latched onto Natasha, only to find their teeth useless against her impenetrable skin.

But the problem with facing the Swarm was that it wasn't like a normal enemy. It had no sense of self preservation . . . no doubts ... no regrets. It existed solely to kill, and some of its members found their way to Red. She was swinging a sheet of rusty metal, smashing the demonic insects with great force, but some found there way to her skin and began to bite and claw and sting.

Red had never felt anything so painful in her life. Each tiny creature was inflicting a pain similar to being shot, and some were actually beginning to burrow into her skin. She smashed herself against a wall, crushing some of them and buying her an all-too- temporary reprieve.

A number of other Strays were suffering similar fates, as they stood too close to the break in the shield or the insects' path to Red.

The ground was crunching beneath their feet as more of the swarm was swatted down, but it was the screams of the Strays that filled the air.

Red felt her flesh ripped as more of the creatures latched onto her.

She had smashed through a wall and found herself in a utility tunnel leading away from the main platform. She threw herself up against one wall and then the other, crushing the insects feeding just underneath her skin.

Then, Red felt . . . secure. She realized that she was spun up in something resembling a cocoon. The material was wrapped around her from head to toe and smelled faintly of . . . shampoo. It was Jane's hair. The young woman had followed Red down and completely enveloped her lover in a living mass of hair that squeezed the life out of any insect that tried to burrow or claw its way into Red. And the red- haired warrior felt Jane's weight fall lightly on top of her. Jane was going to protect Red's life with her own. Red tried to scream ... to tell Jane to run, but it was no use. ALL sound was muffled by the hair and the buzzing in the air.