Wolfgang burst through a burning wall, tackling Felicia to the ground. Shrapnel coated the supervillains burning skin, and a furious grimace covered his face.

“Die!” Wolfgang demanded, “Why don’t you die!”

“Because I’m an adventurer!” Wytch retorted, conjuring ethereal hands to pull Wolfgang off her. Wolfgang ripped a piece of burning lumber out of a wall, and beat Wytch across the face. Wytch’s focus strained as she put a barrier between herself and Wolfgang, and quickly dropped Wolfgang to grab his club. Wolfgang released the club and slammed his foot into Wytch’s knee before kicking her across the room.

Wytch bounced back onto her feet and jogged off to find Gladiator and Zealot. Wolfgang watched in confusion as Wytch’s obviously broken leg seemingly had no issue carrying her. It wasn’t that she wasn’t hurt, Wytch simply ignored the major injury.

Wolfgang wondered what exactly he was getting himself into. He had fought her on sheer adrenaline, and was already starting to feel exhaustion seeping into him. Being blown up does that to a man.

“For Love!” Wytch yelled, running back to Wolfgang.

“Justice!” Gladiator yelled.

“And quality American dining!” Zealot finished.

The New Adventurers came charging into Wolfgang. Gladiator hurled his trident, Zealot flung pieces of burning rubble, Wytch fired magical darts, and Wolfgang fled as fast as his hurt legs could carry him.

As soon as Wolfgang cleared the burning buildings, he called his gang for an emergency pick up.

"Why are we letting him live?" Wytch asked.

"We're not," Gladiator explained, "We're letting him leave."

"Because?" Zealot asked.

"Because if we kill him here, we can't ransack his base," Gladiator explained, "But if we let him leave, he'll go back to his base to lick his wounds. We can follow him, and take all his stuff after we beat him. Also, I can hear sirens."

"We should definitely leave then," Zealot concluded, "I think we caused a lot of property damage."

"Which probably stemmed the fire," Wytch argued, “Probably.”

"It's still a lot of property damage," Gladiator said, mounting his motorcycle, "And those sirens are only getting close. Wytch, can you cast illusions on us again?"

The police firefighters were a bit confused when they saw the way the line of shops had been attacked, and the police were quick to question Daisy.

“Right, them folk came by the other day, an’ they said they’d take care a’ Wolfgang,” Daisy explained, “An’ they killed the two boys Wolfgang sent to take shake me down! This mornin’ they came back, hit Wolfgang with a car and then blew him up!”

“Did you see them leave?” Officer Jenkins asked.

“I’m afraid not.” Daisy said, “After they started hacking apart the strip, I decided to hide inside my diner.”

“Did they speak to you?” Jenkins asked.

“They said they wanted breakfast,” Daisy answered.

Wolfgang’s base was an abandoned warehouse. He had always wanted to set up somewhere nicer, the rust and refuse didn’t suit his refined tastes. Still, there was always abandoned warehouses, and penthouses were much harder to come by.

Wolfgang slumped into his high backed, leather chair, waving over doctors and nurses to tend to his injuries. Among Wolfgang’s entourage was a suit wearing man holding a microphone, and although the doctors tried to keep him away, Wolfgang pushed them back and beckoned the man over.

"Sir, please rest," a doctor begged.

"Silence," Wolfgang spat, "There is business to attend to." Wolfgang snatched up the microphone and pulled it to his mouth, scorched muscles straining in protest, "Attention everyone. This is Wolfgang. We have new personas non grata. Three manifested individuals, one male, two females. If you see them, you are to call for reinforcements immediately, maintain distance, set up snipers, and finish them off.”

“Sir, I-” A lieutenant said, jogging up Wolfgang.

“If heavy weapons are needed, call them in,” Wolfgang continued, “We are going to track these people, hound these people, do not let them escape, do not let them rest, I don’t care who or what is around them. They are freaks, scum! If they-”

“Sir!” the lieutenant said.

“If this is not important-” Wolfgang said.

“They’re here!” the lieutenant said.

Wolfgang stopped, hearing the distant echo of gunfire.

“They’re here?” Wolfgang muttered, "Prepare for combat! I repeat, prepare for combat! Safeties off, fire at will!"

The New Adventurers were met with a hail of bullets as they breached Wolfgang's compound. Guards fired down from catwalks and more peeked from around corners and windows.

"Cover!" Gladiator yelled, stepping in front of Wytch and throwing his trident, "Give us cover!"

Fog poured out from Wytch’s hands, coating the New Adventurers and quickly filling the front of the warehouse. Zealot and Gladiator pulled Wytch down a side path, weapons flashing through the air as Wolfgang’s soldiers shifted positions.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Wolfgang was no military commander, but the years of leading organized crime had taught him a few tricks. The halls of his base were pocketed with pill boxes and kill zones. Every corner the New Adventurers ducked down led into concentrated machine gun fire, and Wolfgang's troops hounded them across the maze of shipping crates.

Bullets screamed through the air, a cacophony of gunfire and shouts echoing all around the New Adventurers. In the heart of this chaos, Zealot recalled an important lesson that the adventurers taught them.

"Fight violence with violence!" The barbarian instructed her. Alice could still feel spittle hitting her face as the barbarian bellowed orders to her.

Alice called on deep rooted hatred and anger, dredging up memories of shouting matches between roommates, parties outside her window, cafeteria food, and pointless credits. She turned her rage to strength, and cut clean through the walls of Wolfgang’s base.

The New Adventurers leapt upon a trio of gunmen as Zealot ripped through a wall, with Gladiator making quick work of the shocked criminals. Hank tossed their guns to Alice and Felicia.

"I don't know how to shoot a gun!" Felicia said.

"Point it towards the enemy," Alice instructed, "And hold down the trigger."

Wolfgang’s thugs quickly surrounded the New Adventurers, but stumbled over each other in panic as the New Adventurers rushed them with guns blazing. The resolve of Wolfgang’s gang buckled and strained as the New Adventurers turned the battlefield to mindless chaos, something the New Adventurers seemed to thrive in. Zealot and Gladiator pulled the gunmen into close combat. The gunmen worked to shoot around their allies as Wytch hurled spirits of fire into their weapons and Zealot’s body glowed with golden light for each bullet she took.

“Hold your ground!” Wolfgang bellowed, “Grenadiers, move to engage!”

“I don’t have much magic left!” Wytch said.

“Burning through healing over here!” Zealot shouted.

“We need to find Wolfgang!” Gladiator ordered, “Wytch, can you find him?”

Gladiator caught the quiet clank of a grenade landing by his feet, and hastily kicked the thing back around the corner. The sharp blast kicked up dust and spat shrapnel into the walls.

“We’re moving! Now!” Gladiator said.

“To where?” Wytch asked.

“Through this wall,” Gladiator said, “Zealot, on me!”

Gladiator and Zealot ripped apart the metal panels and charged through, gaining a brief respite as Wolfgang’s men moved to reposition.

“Which way?” Gladiator barked, stabbing his trident into another wall to pull it apart.

“What?” Wytch asked.

“Which way is Wolfgang?” Zealot said, helping Gladiator hack the wall apart.

Wytch pushed through a splitting migraine to use her overworked magic. She saw a vision of Wolfgang, covered in bandages and laying in bed.

“Left!” Wytch yelled, pushing Zealot and Gladiator through the hole. The New Adventurers charged down hallways, corning and breaking through walls as Wytch led them around. The New Adventurers wove through Wolfgang’s base, running from gunmen as they tried to corner the heroes. In short order, the New Adventurers had broken into Wolfgang’s inner sanctum.

Wolfgang wasn’t surprised to see them. He propped himself up on one hand. And drew a submachine gun with a shaking grip. Gladiator threw his trident, pinning Wolfgang’s hand to the wall.

“Call off your men!” Gladiator ordered.

“Or you’ll what?” Wolfgang demanded, “Kill me? Everyone knows that real heroes don’t-”

“We blew up multiple buildings trying to kill you,” Gladiator said.

“I’m surprised that didn’t work,” Wytch said.

“You were close,” Wolfgang admitted, watching Wytch level a gun, “Honestly, I don’t think I’m long for this world anyway. What do you hope to gain?”

“Your stuff,” Zealot said.

“What?” Wolfgang asked.

“We want the things you have,” Gladiator explained, “And we want to kill you because you’re evil.”

“If you kill me,” Wolfgang said, “My army will gun you down. You’ll never make it out of here alive.”

“Why?” Wytch asked.

“Because they’re part of my gang!” Wolfgang screamed, “What part of-”

“Can you pay them if you’re dead?” Wytch asked.

“If I’m dead,” Wolfgang seethed, “I suspect I won’t really care.”

With that information in mind, the New Adventurers opened fire on Wolfgang. It took more than one bullet to the head to finish him off, which Zealot figured must have been absolute agony. To fix this, the New Adventurers shot Wolfgang until he stopped twitching. It would, Gladiator reasoned, be wrong to force Wolfgang to die a slow and painful death, no matter how much any of them thought he deserved it. It didn't help that none of the New Adventurers actually knew how durable Wolfgang actually was.

After that, Gladiator found Wolfgang’s intercom, and gave Wolfgang’s men an ultimatum.

"Alright, anybody who's left alive, listen up," Gladiator ordered, "Your boss is dead. If y'all leave now, we'll let you go. But, should you lot stick around, well, you're a gang of thugs and criminals, and we're going to treat you like it. Y’all tried to kill us, and we’ll return the favor."

Zealot, Gladiator, and Wytch quietly stalked through the mess of shipping crates. Wolfgang’s base, the New Adventurer’s base, was empty.There was an armory, which was mostly empty, a garage, which was also mostly empty. A small sick bay, a cafeteria with a T.V. bolted to the wall, Wolfgang’s master bedroom, and a vault. To the New Adventurers surprise, the vault was not mostly empty.

Probably.

The heavy steel doors were locked tight, with a numbered keypad set into the wall.

“Think we can break through that?” Alice asked.

“Dunno,” Hank said, “Looks like an awfully thick door.”

“Maybe the combination is written down somewhere?” Felicia guessed.

“Wolfgang struck me as the type to keep it memorized,” Hank said, “Besides, we can always come back for it later.”

“Felicia, could you melt the lock with your heating spell?” Alice asked.

“Not if that’s full of paper,” Felicia answered, “Either way, Daisy’s diner has been successfully avenged! Who’s hungry?”

“I am,” Alice said, “But I think it’s smart to lay low for a while. After our second fight against Wolfgang, I don’t think we’d be welcome.”

“Why not?” Felicia asked.

“We caused a lot of property damage,” Alice explained.

“So?” Felicia asked, “That happens all the time when manifested fight each other.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean people like it,” Hank said, “Besides, most of those fights don’t end with someone setting off a car bomb and running away. Even if we were fighting a supervillain, that don’t exactly make us look good.”

“If we’re not going into town,” Felicia asked, “How do we turn in the bounty on Wolfgang?”

“What if we donated the money?” Alice asked, “That’d help us win back some favor.”

“I guess that’s as good a plan as any,” Hank admitted.

“I’m still hungry,” Felicia said.

“Look, it’s already afternoon,” Hank said, “Daisy specializes in breakfast food-”

“Which people should eat for every meal,” Felicia retorted.

“They should,” Alice agreed, “But they should also eat it for breakfast.”

“And it would be best to go there with more of an appetite,” Hank said, “We can go there in a couple days, first thing in the morning.”