Kathryn had just finished a shift and gone home, feeling more drained than usual. She couldn't help but notice how empty the house was. “...Right, Pitch is away on a mission outside of town again. I really need a massage.” Kasa slowly walked out of her room with a stretch. “I could help with that. I've gotten really good at maintaining my more human form. Also with four hands I'll definitely be able to help work the stress out of your back.” Kathryn nodded and they set up. Kathryn laid down on the floor while Kasa kneeled at her side in human form.

  Kasa turned on the television for background noise before starting to work into Kathryn’s back when suddenly the annoying storm alert sounds started. They both froze mid massage to look at the television to see the program has been interrupted for an emergency broadcast. “Cerfew? Mass incursion event? What is going on?” Kathryn opened the blinds to see the rips in the sky. “Oh… well fuck me.” Kasa can't help but make a joke. “That's Pitch’s job. … Sorry.” Kathryn rolled her eyes. “Grab some rifles from the basement, we need to get out there.”

  The two grabbed several weapons from the basement, Black Eagle gear Pitch had put there just in case. Kasa grabbed two Volt rifles, four Watt pistols, and one Ohm scatter-shot. Kathryn grabbed two Watt pistols, one Volt rifle, and an Amp sniper. Kathryn even put on a spare set of armor Pitch had sitting around. Once equipped the two went outside. Things were already looking crazy as yellow lightning and ribbons of energy added to the chaos of the Cryptids. The two started gunning down Cryptids to help civilians escape, and though many seemed scared of Kasa, they were too busy running away to try attacking her.

  “Should we be handing off our pistols to civilians instead of holding them to get more people fighting back?” Kasa asked Kathryn who was rapidly firing into a crowd of Cryptids. “If you think they won't respond by just shooting you, be my guest. But honestly, I'd be more worried about running out of ammo. There's just too many of the god damned things.” Kasa considers her options before handing off her four pistols to some passerbys who then start shooting at Cryptids while helping other civilians.

  Kathryn sighed and handed off her two pistols too. “I guess having more people fighting back isn't the worst idea, but just the pistols. Don't be handing off the shotgun or rifles.” Kasa nodded in agreement as the two continued to shoot down Cryptids together. A local squad of Black Eagle soldiers noticed them and came over to offer support. “You're the shadow's wife right? Don't worry, we'll back you up. We each owe him our lives, so the least we can do is protect his clearly pregnant wife. Seriously, you should have stayed at home, miss.” Kathryn scoffed. “Just shut up and keep shooting.”

  The group was doing really well, regularly striking vital points, likely due to Kathryn's luck manipulation ability. However, it was clear the concentration of Cryptids was getting thicker, especially when a cloud from a rift that formed over the moon opened up to show a yellow eye. “That must be Phobos. Well shit.” Things continued to escalate, with no end in sight. Although they were easily dispatching Cryptids with minimal effort, the sheer volume of them made it impossible to make any headway. Black Eagle soldiers started tossing flash bangs, frags, and even Edison bulbs as cops, S.W.A.T, National Guard, and military all moved and did their best.

  Kathryn couldn't help but notice that some of the Cryptids being spawned by the lightning strikes and ribbons didn't look right, rather than being the monsters they were used to they were coming out wrong. Lumps of flesh or slime, mutated or amalgamated. The result of Fear Pollution being forced to take form. In addition to that, despite many Cryptids being sent into a frenzy, the Cryptid citizens such as Doppelgangers, Succubi, and even Kasa seemed immune to the frenzy effect for some reason.

  Kathryn wished she had the time to theorize or hypothesize, but she didn't have time to collect samples and analyze them right now. Heck, she hardly had time to think. All she could do right now is help hold off the hoard of Cryptids. Red ribbons and lightning started to join in with the yellow, spawning new creatures different from the yellow energy but still clearly aggressive monsters. Kathryn quickly noticed the small details others would probably miss. “That red energy isn't Phobos. It's something else.” The spawn rate of monsters got faster. It was clear things would continue to escalate.

  Then a rip opened up opposite to the eye of Phobos. When the close parted it was like the opening of a second eye. This one was red just like the energy. Instinctually she knew this wasn't Phobos and its fear, but a rage entity of similar power. Thymós, anger. Kathryn remembered Pitch talking about the entity and that meant this was the worst case scenario. Both the primordial entities of fear and anger were now descending on our world and causing chaos. With everything that led up to this moment, regardless of the outcome it was effectively the end of the world as they knew it.

  Kathryn began to fall back and slowly moved in the direction of the Black Eagle headquarters in order to bunker down and stay safe. “It's definitely too risky for me to be in the open like this. Let's get me to the H.Q. and I'll hand off my weapons. Pitch has more stashed in his basement if you need it. He was sticking up for something like this anyway.” The head of the squad helping her nodded as they slowly escorted her and some civilians to the relative safety of the Black Eagle headquarters.

  The movement was slow as the density of monsters only grew thicker as the combat continued to escalate. Kathryn continued to take shots at further away targets with the Amp rifle as Kasa focused on closer targets with her Volt rifles or Ohm scatter-shot gun. With the help of the Black Eagle squad and other armed combatants who were holding ground, the group eventually made it to the headquarters. Once there Kathryn and Kasa handed off their weapons and went inside. “Where is General Ishwada? I need an update on the situation.” A girl came out from behind a desk to address the newcomers.

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  “General Ishwada is away at the moment, and since Commander Hammer and Commander Anderson are both out as well that puts me in charge here I guess.” Kathryn knitted her eyebrows. “I thought Director Hawkes put Ishwada behind a desk to run things from headquarters like a General and not go on the front line anymore.” The woman shrugged. “Said it was an emergency, grabbed his sword and Pandora's Box and bolted for the airport.” The radio then crackled to life as Ishwada requested military air escort to run a package to D.C.

  Kathryn tilted her head. “What the heck is he- … Oh. Oh! So that's the plan.” Kathryn’s skin went pale. “Oh god that's the plan.” Kasa was confused. “Can someone get me in the loop because you lost me ages ago.” Kathryn let out a short sign. “Right, so basically the plan is to give Pitch the gem of hope that's inside Pandora's box and use that to hit the primordial entities with enough hope energy to kill them.” Kasa blinks a few times. “Okay, sounds simple enough. So why do you seem so horrified? I mean, all he has to do is fire a laser or something, right?”

  The lady currently running the headquarters shook her head. “The gem isn't going to be enough. Mathematically speaking. In order to kill the entities he'll need maybe twice the amount held in the gem. He'll have to find a way to fill the gap.” It takes a minute for the information to sink in, then Kasa goes pale too. “Oh, I see. So the only way to win is for Pitch to use his own body as fuel.” Kathryn shakes her head. “There has to be another way. Pitch is clever, he'll figure something out that'll help him survive.”

  The woman gestured to someone who pulled out a whiteboard with a complex equation on it. “We actually had one of the physicists and mathematicians that work with NexGen whip up this bad boy right here.” Kasa blinks. “I don't think I've ever seen that many Greek letters in one place before.” Kathryn rolled her eyes, then looked at the equation. “This isn't my area of expertise, but it looks like you've got multiple variables here. I know this one is an energy variable and this… and this here is a separate simple equation that just displays a small number multiplied by eight billion.”

  The woman nods. “That small number is the amount of energy one person generates by praying. The idea was to see how much energy would be generated if everyone on the planet focused on a single goal.” Kathryn blinked. “But even with a billion people that's like… one hundred billion watts or one hundred thousand megawatts. That's… about enough to power New York City for around seventeen hours. Which isn't a lot actually when we're talking about entities on this scale.” Kasa hummed in thought. “Is it enough to keep Pitch alive though is the question.”

  The woman then tapped the equation again. “That's per hour Kathryn. One hundred thousand megawatts per hour. It's actually quite impressive. One hundred times that of a nuclear powerplant.” Kathryn chuckled. “And that's why Matrix is a bullshit movie and they should have let the writers keep it as processing power for the explanation. Because that number sounds impressive until you realize it takes the entire planet to do that. The harvesting machines alone probably use up more energy than a single person produces in a rest state.” The woman hummed. “Well yes, but we aren't trying to power the world, just a big ass fuck you laser of hope energy.”

  Kathryn hummed and looked at the math again. “Are you sure this equation is correct?” The woman shrugged. “The person who wrote it said he accounted for the amount of energy in the hope gem and the amount of energy Pitch has based on matter to energy conversation. He then used half of Pitch's density to calculate the approximate potential energy of the two primordial entities considering they look like clouds. Based on our scans they take up the area of the entire range where clouds would be.”

  Kathryn blinks a few times in shock. “That's fucking massive! Even at a quarter of Pitch’s density that's probably the equivalent energy of a Dyson Sphere. You're talking about something with the literal power of the sun!” The woman dies a so-so gesture. “I mean… not exactly but kinda. These are god-like entities after all. I'm not sure why you'd expect less. But in order for the plan to work we need two things besides getting the entire world on board.” Kathryn sighed. “Great, so besides risking his life and getting the entire planet to put their hope and faith in him there's two other things we need.”

  Kathryn let out another, softer sigh. “Okay, what do we need?” The woman flips the white board to a set of diagrams. “First, we need to goad the entities into creating as many Cryptids as possible. Since this process uses the energy from the primordials it reduces the amount we need to overcome. Secondly, we need to find a way to concentrate all the mass of the two entities into as small an area as possible.” Kathryn throws up her hands. “Great, so our plan hinges on the actions of another person basically.”

  The woman once again does a so-so gesture. “Well not entirely. I think it's possible to bait Phobos and Thymós into restoring to the measures we need them too. Ishwada already made the call and suffice to say that Operation: Toto is a go.” Kathryn raised her voice slightly. “Seriously?! That's your plan?! We're going to meme ourselves into getting the victory that we need?” The woman chuckled. “Well it sounds stupid when you put it like that, but kinda. I mean when you think about it it's not a bad weapon for this situation.”

  Kasa has a confused expression. “I feel like there's a reference I don't get, so you lost me again.” Kathryn sighed. “They're going to seed clouds with holy water.” Kasa’s face clicked into understanding. “Ohhhh. You're going to bless the rains. Yeah, that's actually kinda smart.” Kathryn shook her head. “Still doesn't fix the fact you named your big operation after a meme song. I don't care how accurate it is, no one is going to take it seriously.” The woman hummed. “As long as it works, who cares.” Kasa nodded. “She makes a good point.”

  Kathryn groaned. “Yeah, fine, I get it. But there's a few issues with the plan. Most notably, the fact Pitch isn't in on it. I mean… I guess he did already have the idea of using the hope gem as a weapon so all you're really doing is making sure it works by increasing his odds and giving him a solid target. He's probably smart enough to figure out the prayer thing on his own too. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I was so worried.” The woman chuckled. “I don't blame you for going a little overboard.”

  Kasa pitched in. “Yeah, I mean the hormones, the stress, he's your husband and the father of your child. You're allowed to worry about him. Plus it probably doesn't help that Phobos is pumping the air with a lot of fear energy and that's probably enhancing your own natural feelings and driving you to panic much easier than normal.” Kathryn blinked a few times before looking at Kasa. “I'm… surprised you figured that out. That's actually probably what's driving the wild Cryptids mad too. Man, I wish I had the time and resources to study the phenomenon right now. Though I'm sure the techs still at the lab are doing exactly that right now.”

  Kathryn looked over at a screen displaying the chaos still going on outside. “I'm not sure how much we can hold out, you should deploy the holy water now.” The woman nodded. “The order was given and the deployment should be soon.” There's then a beep from a computer with a person sitting at it declaring: “We have launch confirmation, Operation Toto is officially underway ma'am.” Within moments it was raining outside, the water burning Cryptids like acid rain. Kathryn nodded at the screen. “It seems to be working, and our side takes no damage from the rain.”