"Cú Chulainn?" Sorli parroted.

"Aye, son of Lugh, the God of Versatility, you can dig into the history books and mythology if you want to know about your dear ol' da, but we got some shite to discuss and gotta get you back on your feet," Cú Chulainn explained.

"Okay, like what?"

"The old fart who was here before me, the one callin' you Vidar an' all that, do you know who Vidar was?"

"You'd probably tell me even if I said yes, wouldn't you?"

"Vidar Odinson was the Norse God of Vengeance, one of the only ones to live through Ragnarok, and with his magic lil' boots and a sword he slew the Great Wolf."

Sorli rolled his eyes, "I know."

"You aren't a god, son. I wasn't a god, your mother was probably the closest to one out of all of us," the large man explained.

"I never thought I was one, now will you get to the point? For someone talking about needing to get me back on my feet you're being really vague."

"Alright, alright, eager to get back at it, 'atta boy son," Cú Chulainn clapped Sorli on the shoulder, "your mother was the Valkyrie Sigrún."

Sorli brushed his father's hand from his shoulder.

"Then how did she die?" he leveled the question at Cú Chulainn like the point of a blade.

"Well, y'see it's a little complicated, but I think I can break it down for you, son. See, when I died, I bound myself to a standing stone as the last act, died on my feet kind of a thing. Your mother, the Valkyrie, "chooser of the fallen" so they've been called, found me by mistake. See, Ireland was Tuatha territory, so a Valkyrie coming to claim one of their heroes would be in big trouble, she didn't realize that until after she'd already started taking me to Valhalla."

"So, my mother was a Valkyrie with bad directions who slipped up in some divine turf war?" Sorli asked.

"Truth be told son, if she'd just taken me to Valhalla as she intended, no one would have been the wiser, but she hesitated and I woke up in her arms way up above the world. She was beautiful, your mother was..." Cú Chulainn's eyes took on the faraway glaze of nostalgia for a split second before Sorli shoved him.

"And?"

"Well, we fell for each other on the spot... literally and figuratively I suppose, lookin' back. Your mother was startled and dropped me, I'm a touch denser than most men -"

"You can say that again," Sorli muttered.

"I heard that son, now's not the time for sass... anywho, she dove for me, caught me, we crashed, and were in love. While magic existed in the world, we were both a sort of immortal. The magic sustained us, but it also kept us from making a family. One day, your mother told me that she was pregnant, with you. That was how we learned that the magic of the world had been taken, at least for the most part."

Sorli nodded along with Cú Chulainn's explanation.

"I think I see where this is going, magic being gone from the world let you have me, but since it wasn't sustaining you or mom anymore, you vanished and mom lost her powers, right?"

"As much as I can surmise, you are a sharp one, son!"

"Stop calling me that," Sorli said.

"Calling you son? But you are my son."

"And what happens after this little chat, huh? Are you going to live in my head forever or are you going to fade away and leave, like a dream?"

Cú Chulainn opened his mouth to speak, but Sorli cut him off.

"If you can't stay don't call me your son, it's not fair. I watched mom die. As much as that memory haunts me, she never popped into my... fucking... mind palace to say "hi son" and then vanished again, and even if she did, I had my first years with her, not you."

"Sorli..."

"I never had to grieve you, mourn you, so don't you dare put me through that..."

"But -"

"Just let me hate you for leaving us. It's easier."

"Boyo, listen to me, for just a second, alright?" Cú Chulainn's voice was tender, hurt.

"What?" Sorli demanded.

"How do you think I came to be in your head, hm? Magic is back is how. I don't have to live in your head and I'm not goin' to vanish like some fever dream. Your grand da is Lugh like I said, God of Versatility, we'll figure somethin' out and I'll be right here beside ya, it's what we do. You can hate me for leavin'. I get it, boy. But give me the chance to be there for you."

Sorli stiffened his upper lip and tamped his feelings down.

"Fine, what else do I need to know."

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"Role call, sound off if you're alive," Panzer ordered into the neural network.

"You know, I am standing right next to you, so is mi amor..." Go Loud whispered.

Panzer glared at him.

"If we're alive? What happened in there?" Techno's voice chirped.

"It must be bad, whatever it was," Radio's voice, smooth and beautiful flowed through their minds.

"Was that the little girl who cannot talk? Dios Mio, she should be a singer or something!" Go Loud exclaimed.

"Leap here, I'm alive, that bitch almost got me. Could use a pickup."

Panzer focused her senses.

"Talk out loud, I'll come to get you."

"I can't do that right now," Leap's voice shook over the neural connection, "the Director is down here, right in front of me, he just killed Psycher and took some black mist shit from her corpse... he hasn't seen me."

Panzer heard the twitching of a recently made corpse and the Director's heavy footfalls. There had been no gunshots, none of the signature sound of a blade being used... The Director's next steps put him just feet away from Isto and The Supplier.

"What the fuck?" Panzer muttered, her eyes scanning the wreckage, spotting Leap's worried expression among the rubble and Grimm Raven's body; run through by a broadsword.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Her teeth ground. Now was not the time to lose her composure, there was still an op to finish.

"Go Loud, you and Shadow go that way, get Leap, get Grimm, and get the fuck out," Panzer ordered.

"What about you? You'll be right behind us?" Shadow asked.

"As quick as I can. Do. Not. Wait. Get them and get out, something isn't right here."

"Okay... I guess. Let's Go," Go Loud responded.

Shadow jumped up and clutched the luchador's back as he made a running leap from the broken observatory. Panzer mimicked his departure in the opposite direction.

"What the fuck is going on..." she muttered.

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"Red Magus and the Pencil Pusher..." Viskol tutted as he approached, "what's wrong, your little project bite off more than he could chew?"

Isto led with his shoulders and stepped toward the Director, "Riktor, I swear I am not -"

A sphere of darkness collided with Isto's chest and sent him sliding backward for thirty feet before he impacted with a wall and broke free of it.

"Oh... that's cute," The Supplier muttered.

"Isn't it?" The Director chuckled, "You see, thanks to you Red Magus, I've had quite a bit of time to practice doing a lot with very little."

The Supplier arched a brow, "Thanks to me?"

"Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be confined to a mortal, aging body like this one? How long it took for my suggestions to take hold in the subconscious of this... fool of a meat suit?"

"What are you..."

"It took almost thirty years for me to take complete control and just do what I wanted to do, to make sure that within the GSO I was untouchable, unnoticed in the ways I wanted to be, unchallenged. Becoming the shadow leader of the Coterie of the Nefarious, well that was a walk in the park by comparison... you see the so-called 'villains' of this time, they're pushovers. Nothing like the villains of your time, Red Magus," Viskol said.

"D-director?" Atreyu rasped from the ground.

"Atreyu... perfect... you should have just what I need."

Before The Supplier could react, Atreyu's body, gripped by inky mist-like tendrils, slid across the floor to Director Viskol's feet. The middle-aged man stomped clean through the demigod's chest cavity, releasing a shower of gore and a dense cloud of the same black mist before he breathed it all in.

"Mal! Get down!" Isto yelled.

Beams of indigo light spewed out of the Director's eyes, ears, mouth, and fingertips as he writhed and floated upward. They carved through the floors, remaining walls, and bodies leaving only smoke and cold in their wake.

The Supplier lost the tip of her left horn.

Isto weaved through a pair of beams and slid to a stop next to The Supplier.

"You know, I thought we were done with the twists and turns for one night."

----------------------------------------

"Magic is just your will made manifest in the world, so long as there is the fuel to supply it," Cú Chulainn explained, "and the key to your resurrection is right in the middle of your chest."

"Isn't the heart on the left side?" Sorli remarked.

"Aye, but you're not a dragon either, Sorli. It's the magic dragon-killin' sword stickin' out of your chest that I'm talking about."

"Oh..."

"All you've got to do, really, is visualize the magic contained in that blade and pull it into yourself, that should jumpstart your own magic system."

"And then what?" Sorli asked.

"Then you decide to be alive. It's that simple really."

Sorli arched a brow but attempted as instructed. He recalled the supernatural gleaming of the weapon, despite its ancient appearance, how it had bypassed Isto's aura, how easily it had sunk into his chest... if all of that didn't make it some kind of magic, what else could?

"There you go, Sorli, keep it up."

The young super pulled all of the majesties from the broadsword into himself sending a surge through his system like a bolt of lightning. The weapon itself crumbled to dust.

Sorli's eyes shot open.

Go Loud shrieked with surprise.

"Boyo, get offa me," Cú Chulainn grumbled.

"When did you get here?" Go Loud demanded.

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"For sixty-five years my true form has laid dormant, trapped within one of your magic prisons. Did you know how hard I had to work to get the faintest of whispers... the smallest of projected suggestions out from your little bubble of mana? Lucky for me, an overeager investigator, a fool named Viskol came to visit me... oh the secrets I offered him... the information... that was all that it took, you see, I made this man's career before I took his body so I could shape super society in the way that I wanted, where the greedy and seedy could thrive, where -"

"Oh fuck off!" Panzer shouted as she fired a Nova directly into the Director's still convulsing body.

"Can't let her have all the fun," Isto admitted as he darted out. His aura flared to life, the visage of a dragon, and belched the same emerald flames at the writhing man.

The Supplier shook herself, got to her hooves, and formed a series of rapid hand signs over her chest. Seven points of light intermingled behind her, forming an eloquent mandala before glowing brightly at their termination points and erupting with prismatic light.

"Do you think... that is enough... to stop me?!" The Director bellowed, "You think that with your cannons, and your flame, and your magic you can stop my great rebirth?! You foolish heroes, you bumbling idiots! You could never stop me, no more than you could stop the sun's retreat from the sky like you could dodge your own shadow... it is impossible..."

The three streams of energy converged, ripping the director's body to pieces.

"I am The Shayde... and I am Reborn."

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Sorli and Cú Chulainn tumbled out of Go Loud's arms. While Sorli landed on his feet with ease, Cú Chulainn stumbled.

"Ooh, that last trip's a doozy..." he mumbled.

"So, it is great that you are alive and everything, but I do not think I will ever get used to seeing a man crawl out of the bottom of a hole in another man's chest... you are not planning on doing that again, are you?" Go Loud asked.

"What?"

"Good, I did not think so... well, as the strong lady said, it is time for us to go... so we should do that."

Sorli took a moment to look around, it was like the whole maze had been leveled... he'd guessed by whatever conflict had led up to what he was seeing now, attacks from Isto, The Supplier, and Panzer all colliding against one smoking, writhing corpse.

"See, Sorli, that does not look good," Cú Chulainn said, his breathing labored.

"Yeah, looks about as good as you sound... for that one guy."

"Nah, Nah. You misunderstand... that body is just a vessel... what's in it has been marinating for some time and they're about to -"

The three energies collided, rocking the building with the explosion.

"...blow the top off."

A massive hulking silhouette made of shadow loomed over the three more senior supers.

"Oh shit," Sorli mused.

"That there... that's The Shayde... fucker has been around a long time, he goes dormant after he's been beat, takes up residence in the dark parts of men's hearts an' when he's fed enough he attempts to throw the world into darkness again," Cú Chulainn wheezed.

"Okay, but really, why are you so winded?"

"He is probably breathless at the fuerte that is me, amigo... really though, I am strong but that is a little above my pay grade, you know, I don't even know how we are getting paid for this job... so... we are leaving now, yes?" Go Loud said.

"He would be right, more about the second part though. That monster is taking all of the ambient magic around, y'know that stuff I said I was sustained by? The stuff that's just come back? I can't really maintain this form much longer without him stopping."

"What form can you maintain?" Sorli rushed.

"That... that's a good question... hadn't really thought about that, being pure magic now."

"You can all leave if you want to, I'm not," Sorli declared. Something warm in the center of his chest told the young super that he could do something about what he was seeing, put a stop to it... and that if he didn't everyone in the building was going to die... and shortly after, everybody else.

He just needed the right tools.

"Come on Grimm, don't be an idiot," Leap's voice reached him from Go Loud's shoulder, "if the three of them can't take that thing down, how can you?"

Leap hopped down, favoring her right leg.

"Is this your woman, son?" Cú Chulainn asked.

Sorli opened his mouth to correct him on a number of things, but before he could, Leap slapped the demigod across the face. He turned back to observe the melee unfolding.

"Seems right," he chuckled, "I think I found one I can hold, but you've got to finish this quicklike."

"Alright, let's do it, I've got a plan, and you," Sorli said, pointing at Go Loud "are the key to it."

"Me?"

----------------------------------------

Isto, The Supplier, and Panzer peppered the ominous and growing shadow with magical attacks, projectiles, Dragonfire, and everything they could find.

"Why won't this thing fucking die?" Panzer shouted right before The Shayde's giant fist slammed into her.

"I don't know!" The Supplier yelled back, weaving between a pair of rending claws.

"We need divine weapons, something blessed by a god... where's Atreyu's stuff?" Isto bellowed as he matched one of Shayde's titanic blows.

Another Nova soared over the debris and slammed into the side of The Shayde's face, knocking it off balance.

"Can't you just turn back into a dragon and eat this fucking thing?" Panzer called.

Isto hesitated for a moment. Technically, he could, but with how close he had been to losing control the last time, and how immediately that had been, it was a bad idea.

"Not today!" he answered.

"You are all helpless, powerless, weak. See how futile your efforts are? How little effect your powers, for all that they are, have on me? You thought that your inheritance, ancient magic, and your divine nature put you at the top of the food chain here? You were wrong, for I, The Shayde, the architect of the boundless dark, the infinite void, am -"

"OH SHIT!" Leap cried as she arrived, rapidly, in front of the Shayde.

A thunderclap boomed.

"NOW LITTLE LADY!" Go Loud shouted, his hands still raw from the clap he used to void the other noise.

Leap teleported five times in rapid succession, once back to Go Loud's side, where Sorli stood, hefting a massive spear, back to where she had been, just ten feet from The Shayde midair, back to halfway between Go Loud and the massive swarm of darkness, forward from there, slingshotting Sorli and the spear at the villain, and finally back into Go Loud's arms, where she promptly lost consciousness.

"What?!" The Shayde bellowed.

Sorli plunged the spear between the thing's eyes, carving into the mass of shadow as though it were solid before planting his feet and running down its front, dragging the blade through it the whole way. The same violent eruption of violet light splayed out from the bisected Shayde as Sorli leaped away and landed on one knee, the spear slung over his shoulder.

"No... fucking... monologues..."