Cauldron was having a fairly normal day. He had the ability to obtain information, data, and trends and mix them together to find common points. This made him excellent at surveillance and watchdog procedures. It was one of the primary reasons that the Heroes’ Guild had picked him up so rapidly. He was fresh, excited, and eager to serve the city and the country against he villainous threat.

Then he got deployed to the listening post in the industrial zone.

After several years of being posted in the same place, that excited eagerness had turned to begrudging frustration and resentment. Each and every request to be transferred was met with the same response; try again in three months. After the ninth attempt, he simply stopped trying.

“What’s on the radar for today?” asked Phantom, plopping himself down in the chair next to the dispirited super. “Have you figured out why the Hounds basically vanished off the board?”

Cauldron sighed, shaking his head. Phantom was the Class III super in charge of the listening post. And a man with an unabashed, absolutely zero level of ambition. He had been here for nearly a decade, listening and waiting for something big to happen. He was positive that it would, he just didn’t know when or where.

“No. Nothing. They just up and disappeared. Honestly, something always leaks. So I am leaning towards the theory that they are all dead,” admitted Cauldron. “If that’s the case, someone was thorough in their cleanup job. Shouldn’t we report this to HQ Intel? A gang that large disappearing overnight is… significant.”

Phantom just laughed, “No. No, don’t do that,” he said after a moment of mirth. “These gangs kill each other off frequently, change, absorb one another. No sense in reporting a bunch of nobodies getting bumped off.”

Phantom annoyed him on a level he couldn’t explain. A gang breaking broken up was one thing. Three hundred and sixty-four people vanishing over the course of a week? With no indication of who, or what, or why? That was something else entirely. He was the best analyst in this place, and he couldn’t find even a breath of information anywhere on who was doing this or why. Cauldron only knew that it left a serious power vacuum in this part of the industrial district.

“I really think that-“ he began, but was cut off as every perimeter alarm went off simultaneously.

Sitting up quickly, Phantom tapped a few keys and changed the view over to the security cameras. “What the fuck is that?” he asked, startled at the muscled red things that were attacking the front entry hatch to the base. More importantly, they were at the rear escape hatch too.

The other four supers on their team flew into the command center, landing in nearby chairs. Warden, their weapons expert, Whiz, their team’s speedster, Merlin, their aquatics expert, and the newest member and recently disgraced super Sandman who was supposedly a magic user.

“I have dozens of these things trying to get in,” reported Merlin. “I don’t know what they are, but fuck they’re ugly.”

Warden stood up, “Gonna break open the armory. If those things get in we could be in trouble. The hatches are giving way, it means those guys are strong at the very least,” he said turning to jog out of the room, the reinforced bulkhead door to the command center sliding shut behind him.

Just as he left Whiz gasped, “Who is that?” he said, stunned.

The heroes in the room swapped their primary screens over to see a stunningly gorgeous woman saunter over to the hatch. The team watched in fascination as the little red muscular men backed off as she examined the hatch. That fascination turned to horror as, with little resistance, she reached down and ripped it clean off its hinges.

“Well fuck. That was a solid steel hatch reinforced with stay bars under it. That would take at least a Class III to wreck like she did,” Whiz said as the group turned to look at Phantom.

He looked a bit worried. And sweaty. “What? I can take her. If you can all distract those things until we duke it out, we should be fine. Right? Right?” he said, his voice increasing in pitch to a high squeak at the end.

“Right,” drawled Sandman, drawing out the word,” I think maybe we should scuttle the post and get the fuck out. No point in dying for a basic listening post in bum fuck nowhere.”

“We cant-“ Phantom began, clearly intent on arguing to stay. Unfortunately he never managed to finish his sentence. A loud stream of heavy weapons fire from hallway sounding out. The deep brassy booms of a massive firearm along with the high pitched chattering of a machine gun carried on for some time.

The silence fell.

The team looked at one another then spun back to the monitors only to find each and every one of them, with the exception of the camera right outside of the command center door, to be offline. Static filled the screens. There was nothing to see, not anymore.

“Oh, we are so fucked,” muttered Whiz, shaking. “This is so, so, so far beyond what we can handle. But this doesn’t fit the MO of any villain or gang that I know of,” he admitted quietly.

A soft knocking on the door got all of their attention. They stared raptly at the heavily reinforced bulkhead door that led into the command center. It could be compared to the hatches above like a bull would be compared to a mouse. Heavily reinforced steel and titanium with interlocking bolts that seamlessly secured themselves through the door itself and into the walls made it nearly impossible to break.

Sandman slowly turned back to the one screen they had remaining. on the security camera was the woman. Her perfect face, full lips and pale skin a contrast to the rather insidious look in her eyes. A look that was fully captured by the cameras. But that wasn’t what stunned Sandman… no. It was the fact that this woman was, in proportion if nothing else, the spitting image of Solaria.

“I think I know her?” he muttered, getting the others attention.

The woman, however, didn’t allow them any chance for discussion. “Hello in there,” she purred, “I can tell you’re in there. How about you just open the door nicely and surrender? Then we can avoid any further… loss of life?”

“Fuck, they killed Warden,” Phantom raged, slamming his hand into the table. “We can’t surrender. Heroes don’t surrender,” he emphasized.

Whiz shrugged, “Well if they don’t kill us after we surrender then every moment we live is a moment we can escape. If we fight now though, sounds like she has no issues killing us.”

Sandman ignored their bickering and queued up the speakers. The noise cause the other heroes to look at him. “Solaria? Is that you?” he asked, curious. The super heroine had vanished shortly after the battle with Death and Devastator… and that creature. But based on the look of mild shock on the woman’s face, here she was. Fine and dandy. While he had been pushed and punished by the very organization he had sworn to serve.

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“Now this is a pleasant surprise,” she purred, “Sandman, oh Sandman. How have you been? Based on the fact that you are here right now, the Guild was not pleased with your failure to catch The Man Who Wears Demons.”

He blinked at that, as the others in the room looked at him in confusion.

“Who the fuck is that? Someone wears demons? What is she on about?” asked Phantom, demanding an answer.

Sandman shrugged, his body quivering with anxiety and rage. “I think she means the thing that came down from that weird portal when Death and Retribution were fighting. That creature who killed Devastator in one hit. Granted, he didn’t stay dead, but yeah. I think she means that… monster.”

Queuing up the speakers again, Sandman said, “Where have you been Solaria? We looked everywhere for you. Everywhere. Leadership was pissed when they couldn’t find you and ensure that you didn’t know anything else. I had nothing to tell them other than that fucking creature was beyond anything I had ever encountered before.”

“Oh, you know, here and there. I died. Then came back to life. The usual stuff,” she said nonchalantly.

Then the thing walked up next to her. “Stella. Open the damn door, we don’t have all day,” it growled. Its faceplate swirled in various facial expressions and carved out demonic images. It was dressed in what looked to be a metal breastplate of some kind, with gauntlets covering its arms.

The succubus pouted. “Sorry Master, it seems that I know someone inside. Maybe with a bit of… playing they can be convinced to open the door?” the two villains devolved into a discussion as the heroes looked on from inside the room.

“Well… you’re all fucked,” admitted Sandman. Then he dispersed, the sand that made up his body flowing up the wall and into an air vent.

Everyone watched the newest member of their team flee in shock. Sandman had been, arguably, the second most powerful member of their team. Now they were down nearly half their number, and they hadn’t even engaged the enemy yet.

“Sandman, oh Sandman?” sang Stella, twirling around on the screen, “Open the door Sandman… please?”

“Enough,” grunted the large man covered in the imposing armor. “I’ve wanted to test my strength for a while now. A stationary target should make an excellent practice dummy. Then I can practice on any dummies left in the room.”

Drawing back a large, gauntleted fist the man slammed it into the reinforced door. Contrary to what everyone inside of the room thought, the door tore off one side of the wall in a shriek of metal and a shower of debris. Whoever this guy was, he was insanely fucking strong.

His head poked through the hole he had just made, “Knock, knock. Here’s Grim!” he said, his helmet portraying a visage of a snarling maw filled with teeth.

Phantom screamed like a little girl, high pitched and long. His leg curled up as he held out his hands in front of him, eyes closed shut as if something were bearing down on him.

Grim turned to the other heroes, “He’s… is he ok? That’s not normal for him is it?”

“We don’t know him,” dead panned Whiz.

“Not one of ours,” agreed Merlin.

Cauldron just stared at everyone as if they were insane. “Seriously, his head is poking through the hole! Fucking attack it!” he said, drawing a pistol and shooting Grim square between the eyes.

The single gun shot was deafening in the enclosed space, but as much as that sudden and deafening sound surprised everyone there was a bigger surprised yet. In the following silence the heroes watched the bullet, which was embedded in the center of Grim’s helmet, fall off and hit the floor with a light plinking noise.

“That was rude,” Grim grunted, pulling his head out of the hole. With a sudden grunt of effort he struck the door again, this time ripping it clean out of the door frame and hurling it across the room. The Heroes dove out of the way as it slammed into the surveillance equipment, obliterating the entire set up.

Phantom was the first one on his feet, the attack having apparently cleared his mind enough to attack back. Black energy crackled across the heroes knuckles as he held out his arms and unleased pitch-black lightning at the horror that was standing in the remains of the doorway.

The attack struck Grim in the chest, eliciting a grunt from the large man. Merlin conjured water from thin air, freezing it into solid spikes of ice. He hurled them at the slowly advancing villain, paling as he swatted them out of the air through brute force. Cauldron just fired his pistol, unable to do much more. His powers lay in data analysis and surveillance. He was not a combat based super.

Whiz dodged in between the attacks and, using his martial arts skills coupled with his speedster abilities, delivered critical blows to Grim faster than the villain could track. Slamming his fists into where his kidneys would be, kicks into his chest and head, and stomping on Grim’s toes, Whiz made a serious nuisance of himself.

“Fuck,” grunted the demonic villain. Without warning, his arm blurred out and grabbed Whiz. The speedster was so caught off guard by this massive increase in speed, that he was shocked just long enough for Grim’s hand to find purchase around his throat. He lifted him up off the ground, preventing the fast man from continuing to move.

Merlin and Phantom, unable to see exactly what was going on but trusting in Whiz to dodge their attacks, unleashed a new hailstorm of ice and lightning. The attacks intertwined, adding considerable power to the now combined complementing forces of nature.

“No!” called out Cauldron, having been at an angle to see Grim catch the speedy hero. Unfortunately, it was far too late.

With no hesitation at all, Grim hurled Whiz directly into the storm that was approaching him. The speedster never knew what hit him as the violent elemental forces simply tore his body to shreds, leaving nothing but a light red mist and some scraps of clothing lingering in the air and on the ground.

Phantom paused, unsure what had just happened. Marlin, however, was enraged. He summoned dozens of new ice spikes and launched them at the imposing villain, only to throw himself sideways in shock as a rolling curtain of crimson fire overwhelmed his position. Phantom, however, wasn’t so lucky. The crimson fire engulfed him fully, causing the main to flail rapidly and fall to the ground. He rolled around trying to extinguish the flame as Cauldron looked on in horror.

Merlin conjured water and dumped it onto the dying hero, but it did nothing. A few moments later, with a last choking gasp, Phantom lay still. It was only at that time that the flames went out.

“You nasty fucker! Fuck you!” yelled Merlin, conjuring more ice spikes. He didn’t get any further than that as Grim blurred across the room, picked him up by the throat, and with one smooth movement broke his neck. He dropped the body to the ground, as if it no longer interested him.

Cauldron slid slowly to the floor, the gun dropping from his slack fingers. There was no way he could stop this villain. Hell, there was no way he could do anything but die to mildly inconvenience him. He could only hope that, through some level of dumb luck, he survived this.

He turned back to the doorway, where dozens of the muscular little red men and the gorgeous woman waited patiently. “Thought Rat said there were six? I count five, including the not so dumb shit who gave up,” Grim said, throwing a thumb over his shoulder at Cauldron.

Stella shrugged. “Sandman probably ran. My memories tell me he was never the most loyal or brave companion. His weird body would allow him to get in and out of places pretty easily. He probably went through that air vent there,” she said, gesturing at the vent.

“Grand,” Grim grunted, turning back to Cauldron. He walked over and picked the hero up by his shirt, setting him on his feet. “I got a job for you,” he said bluntly.

Cauldron stared at him. “M… m… me?” he stuttered. “A job?”

“Yeah. Honestly, its your lucky fucking day. If I didn’t need you for something, I would have just melted you into a pile of charred meat,” the villain said with no emotion in his voice. Somehow the dead tone was a more terrifying threat than any verbal promise of violence. “You are going to go back to your superiors. You are going to tell them this area is mine, and to fuck the fuck off. Anyone they send over here, including that dipshit Retribution, I will kill in the most horrifying way possibly. Then I will have the sever heads delivered, in a very public way, back to them. Do you understand?”

Cauldron nodded rapidly.

“Good. Now get the fuck out of my sight,” growled Grim.

The hero scrambled madly for the door, the little red men jeering and cackling at him as he ran as fast as he could. He would tell his bosses. That was a given. He would tell them everything he experienced here, everything he learned, and everything that had happened. Just how strong these villains were, and what they were claiming. Then he was going to fucking quit. They didn’t deserve his loyalty. Not after this.

Besides, he heard there was a burger chain hiring. He was sure that would be a safer gig. It would probably pay more too.