CHAPTER FIFTY THREE

Times Square, New York

Moses threw obstacle after obstacle into the ground after retreating from the stage. The Alchemist walked through the air like a mist was carrying him. He swiftly kicked and jumped over Moses' obstacles. Moses was worried and tried to keep up with everything around him. He fell back into the battle between revolting refugees and the soldiers imprisoning them. Moses used them as a means to get his shit together. He backed up next to a parked car and tried to visualize everyone fighting around him on the concrete.

DarkFlood blocked another strike from Faulkner as he pushed back and felt Moses' mind projecting from the square. He needed help. DarkFlood closed his eyes and transmitted his sonar and visions to help access what Moses needed. Moses screamed in hysterical pain and a cliff shot up out of the street that lifted him and the parked car up twenty feet. DarkFlood took the hit from Faulkner and Fitzsimons moaned on the floor, distracting both of them.

"You don't understand," Fitzsimons coughed on the floor, "Soon I will become him completely."

"Then who is really the enemy!?" Philip yelled out, as Seventh and Broadway were decimated by razor sharp cliffs spiking out of the ground. "THE THIEF!" the two streets hemorrhage asphalt, "OR THE MURDERER!" The stone spikes came to a fine point where many plunged into the hearts of Fitzsimons' mindless soldier drones. But it didn’t stop the Alchemist.

Moses turned himself into a stone giant. The Alchemist laughed, he felt his opponent was now ready to fight like the gods they were.

He pulled a giant golden sword out and cut a curved slice up to Moses' stone giant head. The Alchemist put the sword away and ran up the slice before it faded, leaping onto Moses' shoulder. Moses shrank back down to normal size, his head last, and they both plummetted back down to the floor. The Alchemist threw two golden ropes from his hands, attaching to the walls of the towers, and Moses raised the ground below him to catch his fall. The Alchemist threw two golden discs at Moses and he countered by raising a wall to block them.

The discs shattered into dust and dissolved the wall. The Alchemist blew the gold dust forward and it forced Moses to inhale the golden slivers, scraping his lungs. Moses coughed and heaved. He doesn't know what to do. The Alchemist dropped down on his back with his elbow. Moses turned over and pulled the concrete of the street through his chest, knocking the Alchemist in the face. Moses slammed his fist into the road and pulled up electrical chords connected to a streetlight. He swung the chords down and they crushed the street light into the Alchemist.

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The ground shook and a short earthquake dropped Moses down into the trench he formed from the pulled-up chords and the crack. He looked for his enemy. The Alchemist ran in the dark cavern, his shadow shown off a reflection for Moses to see. He chased him down and the Alchemist jumped out from behind him. He grabbed Moses' face and turned him to gold. He was frozen into a statue. Moses pulled the earth beneath his feet once again and manifested enough pressure to break the golden hold. The Alchemist lost control over his opponent and the gold cracked. Underneath the shedding gold skin, Moses was pure stone.

He could feel it. He was more dense. It took more to move but he adapted. Moses felt everything more as the weight of the world folded all around him. His gravitas shifted and he saw the world a little differently from now on. He was the stone, one in the same. And he could do whatever he wanted. The stone skin re-solidified into different colors. He could mimic his old appearance. Luckily he was bald to begin with, along with the black vest he was wearing it didn't take much. And what the hell, he decided to keep his grey-stone arms.

Moses was reborn in his natural habitat beneath the earth's crust.

Lazarus and Yannie held each others hands, father and son, and bent the light around Hydro. He was bound by the light. If he touched it he would be thrown through time and space. Randolph panted on the ground as the build up of unnatural energy was forcing him to go into cardiac arrest. He released rogue pulse blasts to try and ventilate the overflow. They cut into the skyscrapers and caused them to buckle and break, plummeting into the square. The Hatter walked up to him and stared down at the dying doctor, smiling "Just as I thought."

"No," Randolph squirmed.

"I knew you would be an easy win," The sociopath laughed at the mistake. "Especially when your so-called friend already signed your death warrant."

The Hatter was not making any sense. Randolph could barely concentrate. His heart was failing. The pain was blinding, it cut him off from the world. All he could hear was his heartbeat dying out. This was the end for him. Lazarus and Yannie slammed the cage down on the Hatter, trapping him with Hydro. Hydro extended his arm into the Mad Hatter's face as he muted his screams. Yannie closed the cage, combining it with Hydro's water, and the three of them are sent off through space and time.

The alleyway fight was over. But all was not lost. Lazarus looked at his hands, they were flesh, he was no longer like Sensei or Yannie, a being of light. He was human once again. Lazarus knew the selfless sacrifice his son had made, and loved him for it. He could only hope that one day he joined him in glory, but right now he was needed by his friend. The kind doctor who looked after his boy for free after he nearly died in the fire. Laz ran over to the still body on the ground. He stood over him, never expecting to see that…

Dr. Randolph was dead.