Mod was the first one out of the helicopter. He stepped out and took position near the edge of the roof. They’d set down on the roof of a department store—it was a good choice. It was one of the tallest, and one of the few that wasn’t an office building. One of the few that was mostly brick instead of glass.
They were four or five stories up, and flooding held steady about one story above the ground. The rain was falling steadily now, and the gray waves swirled and churned below.
Mod spared a quick glance behind him and saw the other two helicopters landing on adjacent buildings. Together, their positions formed a triangle, with Mod’s team at the front, pointing toward South Side and toward their enemies.
Serenity wasn’t kidding when she said that this was their evaluation.
Mod heard the faint footsteps of his teammates behind him, almost completely drowned out by the whirr of the helicopter blades. But he kept his eyes forward, half-fixed on the group of Deep Ones and half-scanning the water.
Their targets were only a block away, close enough for Arsenal, Cherry, and the others to engage. The Deep Ones were a shade of green so dark it was almost black. Thin spines stuck out of their joints and in a ridge along their backs. Most of the Deep Ones were crouched and mulling about the roof, their long-limbs folded back like bats when they crawled. They seemed to paw at the surface of the roof, maybe trying to find a way inside.
The other half of the group stood straight up and were staring directly at the capes. Their eyes were huge and white and their mouths were half-open, their needle-sharp teeth extending past their lips. Each time Mod met their eyes, his stomach turned. It felt like staring at a school of sharks.
Only one stood out from the group, and it too was watching them. It was paler than the others, its spines smaller. At first glance it might’ve looked young, but Mod quickly decided that it looked older than the others.
The Deep Ones were clustered close enough together that Mod might be able to land a shot with his pistol, but that wasn’t his job today. He was on defense.
Arsenal landed beside him. McGuire, Cherry, Larian, and Krystal stepped up a moment later.
Cherry brushed back her red hair. She muttered, “They really went and put us at the front.”
Serenity appeared beside them. “Yes. As I said, this is your evaluation, and I wanted to see how you do for myself. Especially since some of you have gotten upgrades since we last spoke.”
Mod tried to ignore her, but McGuire elbowed him. “Good job, Mod… Hey, that rhymes.”
Serenity said, “I’m going to maintain an overwatch position and a soft psychic link between our group. You’ll have a general sense of where your teammates are at any moment and whether they are in immediate danger, but that’s all. I’ll be the only voice you hear in your heads.”
Mod glanced at Arsenal. With her helmet on, she was immune to psychic influence.
“I am here too,” TINA replied in their comms. “I will relay information if needed.”
Mod stiffened. It might’ve been his imagination, but it felt like their entire group did as well.
Krystal chuckled awkwardly and glanced in their direction. “At least we’re not alone.”
“You’re welcome.”
Serenity eyed the Deep Ones for a moment. They were still clustered on the roof, but the mages in the center had started gesturing and clattering its teeth. Mod didn’t need to hear or understand it to know that it was casting a spell.
Serenity said quickly, “No matter what you feel, you have two orders: One, maintain your offensive or defensive position. Two, follow my orders.”
The two mages stepped beside serenity. The one in black robes spoke in a gruff voice. “Permission to engage?”
Serenity answered in a voice that was in Mod’s ears as much as in his skull. “Offensive teams, fire your first volley.”
The air screamed with a dozen different powers: Arsenal’s kinetic blasts, Cherry’s blasts of explosive energy, lances of pure shadows from the mage in black, and McGuire fired his slingshot. A dozen other powers fired from the other rooftops: Beams of fire, spears of ice, arcs of electricity, and strange kaleidoscopic explosions.
For a few seconds, the bluster of winds and crash of waves against buildings was completely overshadowed by the power of the Summit.
When the blasts cleared, they saw a wall of ice where their enemies had been. It was a bright blue and had to have been incredibly thick. Some of the attacks had knocked craters into the ice, but none were deep enough to punch through. A gasp spread across the roof.
Mod had felt confident that the Summit’s superior numbers would give them an edge. But that single Deep Mage had rebuffed a volley from all three of their teams. It seemed like this would be a fairer fight than anyone anticipated.
Meanwhile, Mod and the defensive team readied themselves.
He caught the flicker of Fast-Response drones as they buzzed around the ice-covered building.
TINA’s voice came through a moment later. “Their force is separating. Seven of their soldiers just dove into the water. Be ready.”
Mod muttered a curse. Even with his UV and infrared sight, it was impossible to see through the churning waves.
Mod asked, “TINA, do you have a visual on their soldiers?”
“No.”
“Who are you talking to?” Serenity asked, irritation bleeding into her voice.
“Eyes in the sky. Half their force broke off and went into the—there!”
It had only been moments since the Deep Ones’ force had split up, but there was movement in the waves just below their building. Fish-men soldiers clambered out of the water and up the side of the building, their hooked fingers digging into the bricks. If anything, they were climbing even faster than they swam.
Mod pulled his pistol out of his leg compartment and fired at the nearest soldier. A sledgehammer round slammed into its shoulder. The fish-man slipped on the bricks but didn’t fall. Its teeth chattered and the creature resumed climbing. Mod fired again, hitting it in the face and sending it crashing into the waves.
They were tough, but Serenity was right—they were in line with Class One supers as far as durability went. Their claws would be another story…
Mod put away the pistol and pulled out his bo staff. Then he flicked the hidden switch on his staff. A long, slender blade popped out of one end, turning the staff into a broadaxe.
In the back of his mind, Mod sensed that more fish-men were attacking the other teams. There must have been more Deep Ones hiding beneath the waves. Mod searched those feelings, hoping for an exact number of fish-men or whether there were more mages amongst their ranks, but he couldn’t discern anything more than that gut feeling of danger.
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Cherry fired at the climbing soldiers, knocking one back into the waves, and splitting another down the middle.
“Tough bastards!” she shouted.
The nearest fish-men were almost upon them. Another second and—
Ice spikes grew around the roof—Krystal’s doing. They pointed down at the approaching deep ones like deadly stakes. The first fish-men recoiled from their edges, but the spikes weren’t close enough together to bar the way completely. One soldier was already reaching through.
Battle erupted across the other buildings as the fish-men neared the top of the roofs.
“Get back from the edges,” Serenity said. “Defensive teams, get ready!”
Mod, Arsenal, Krystal, and Larian’s shadow tree stepped in front of the others.
TINA said urgently, “Incoming!”
Mod glanced up, but his eyes locked on an approaching wave. The mass of water rolled and flared into a crest like it had struck something in the middle of the empty intersection. Ice shot out of the white cap.
Mod shouted, “Get down!”
Mod’s impact shield sprung from his left forearm compartment.
A hail of icy daggers sailed over the roof. Mod managed to cover enough of his body with the impact shield—ice slammed into it, and it was only thanks to Mod’s enhanced strength that he stayed on his feet. Arsenal held up the gauntlets of her exosuit, Larian’s tree blocked ice with its branches. Krystal conjured her own formidable wall.
“Is everyone alright?!” someone shouted. Probably one of the mages. Mod didn’t have time to look.
The first of the Deep One’s soldiers climbed over the roof. Mod slashed with his axe. The fish-man held up an arm to block, but the blade lopped its arm in half. Blue blood spurted from the end.
The fish-man didn’t react at all. Didn’t howl, didn’t blink, didn’t gnash its teeth faster or slower. It used the stump to haul itself the rest of the way atop the roof.
Before it could lunge, Mod swung again, this time bringing the blade down hard across its shoulder with robotic strength. This time the blow nearly cleaved the creature in half—its body split apart like logs of firewood and fell backward off the roof.
Larian’s tree was similarly effective—batting the soldiers away like toys. Mod felt bursts of power from his left, which must’ve come from the blue-robed mage—they felt like Cherry’s bomb attack, except much shorter and wider, like a shotgun spread.
Mod could only keep track of so much in the maelstrom that followed. Occasional shots came from the offensive team. Arsenal shifted to be closer to Krystal, using her exosuit in melee.
TINA said, “Be advised, there were more Deep Ones in hiding.”
Then they were all forced to duck again as another hail of icy projectiles flew at the roof. They’d been lucky so far, but there were so many projectiles that it was just a matter of time before someone got seriously injured.
“We have to get rid of that mage!” Mod shouted. “Larian, can you summon your crow?”
The summoner was crouched behind the giant tree, moving in almost perfect sync with the creature. “Yes. I can bring Tuke here,” he said.
“What are you planning?” Serenity asked.
“Permission to take the fight to them?”
There was a deafening pause as Mod slashed another fish-man and kicked it over the edge.
“I need a defense and fast attack to fill in at the front.” Serenity’s voice sounded distant as she cast her voice to the rest of the teams. “Mod, Arsenal, it’s your turn. You either take the mage out quickly, or fall back. Heroes don’t last long in the Summit.”
On command, Larian pressed his hands together. Darkness swirled around him, and a muted thundercrack echoed overhead. Tuke, the giant black crow, dove out of the clouds. It circled around the building, causing the Deep Ones to pause.
Mod shouted for Arsenal. She clasped his hand and rocketed away. Mod Tuke’s shadowy form followed just over her shoulder. The chittering sounds of the fish-men soldiers faded as they hurtled through the air.
They crossed the block in seconds, flying high over the ice walls of the building. The fish-mage was surrounded by several soldiers, and the group glared up at the heroes with expressionless eyes.
The mage raised a webbed hand and hurled spikes of ice at them. Mod blocked them easily with his shield and others shattered on Arsenal’s exosuit. Tuke spun and dove at the roof with startling speed, but the mage raised a shell of ice, completely walling off the roof. Tuke let out a sharp, surprised cry and pulled up.
They had to break through the ice and take out the mage. It was time to try another maneuver.
“Fastball?” Arsenal asked.
“Do it.”
Arsenal hovered overhead, then spun around like a top. Mod held on tight to her exosuit glove, then released on the third rotation, diving straight down toward the icy dome of the roof.
Mod braced his shoulder against his shield as he plummeted. Above him, Arsenal fired a flared burst of power. The shockwave propelled him downward even faster.
The air screamed around him, so loud that Mod could barely hear Arsenal’s additional shots; she’d shot the ice, softening it so he could break through easier.
It probably wasn’t necessary—Mod didn’t just break through. He burst through. Mod felt the first tremor of impact against his shield and shoulder. Then he slammed into the roof, tucked and rolled into the fray.
He rose and slashed at the nearest fish-man—a soldier—and cleaved its arm off. He slashed wide to fend off attacks from other soldiers. Still, their arms were long enough that Mod still had to duck to avoid them completely.
Arsenal crashed through the ice dome a breath later—shattering it completely. Her impact shook the roof and ice rained down on the battle.
The fish-mage had backed away from both of them, conjuring thick wedges of ice to hide behind, then hurling spears made from the collapsed dome.
Mod and Arsenal turned into a whirlwind—axe, shield, kinetic blasts, and metal.
Immediately, the fish-men changed tactics. They backed into the far corner of the roof, the soldiers clamoring to protect the mage.
Mod felt a pit in his stomach, even as he fought. It had only been a day since their fight with The Freakshow, and it was eerie seeing the perfect coordination of a hive-mind again. The soldiers and mage moved in perfect step, their attacks overlapping without getting in each other’s way, like a single organism with a dozen limbs. Even their teeth gnashed in unison.
Mod’s axe cut the arm off of one soldier and another reached through the new gap to slash at him. Then a crippled one used the cover to lunge around and tried to bite him. Arsenal’s kinetic blasts blasted chunks out of the icy barricades, but she couldn’t hit the same place twice as other soldiers forced her off balance.
No—eerie wasn’t the right word to describe encountering a hive-mind like this. Otherworldly… Eldritch… like fighting a nightmare that you couldn’t wake up from.
But this wasn’t a nightmare, and Mod had tricks of his own.
Mod pushed forward, for the first time coming well-within arm’s reach of the snarling soldiers. Nails scraped across his shield as he blocked one attack and slashed at the legs of another.
There was a gap in the ice, just wide enough to see the chittering form of the mage. Too thin even to jab his axe-staff through—
Claws swiped across his thigh, but Mod’s suit took the worst of it.
Mod’s prehensile whip extended out of his right arm and snaked through the gap. While still fighting, Mod grabbed hold of the mage and sent a full-power electrical charge through the whip. The fish-mage spasmed and collapsed.
Mod quickly recoiled his whip and stepped back—narrowly avoiding another attack.
The soldiers, who had once been coordinated, turned absolutely feral. Two of the remaining fish-men lunged for Mod, slashing as much at each other as they did at him, like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
Mod backpedaled, blocking and retaliating. He threw all his strength behind wild swings, gutting both soldiers in a single blow, then quickly cleaving through them each in turn.
Mod turned toward Arsenal, chest heaving and ready to help her, but she had already finished off her own foes. They lay at her feet, unmoving and crumpled at painful angles.
The pair of supers locked eyes, both their faces unreadable behind their masks.
“Not bad,” Clara said.
Mod smiled, but their relief was short-lived.
“Get back here!” Serenity’s panicked voice shook them out of the moment.
“Let’s go,” Arsenal said, her thrusters already powering up.
Mod paused, then rushed over and decapitated the downed mage. It had been a cold and calculated movement… Even if the Deep Ones were trying to kill them, even if they were a hive-mind without individuality… Killing the mage felt wrong.
But Mod didn’t have time to dwell on it. He went to Arsenal, dispelled his shield, and locked hands with her.
He deliberately avoided looking at the bloody roof and the slaughtered remains of the Deep Ones.
~ ~ ~