Standing in the door, Stoneheart stared at something over his shoulder. He shook his head, grabbing the mail from the box on the wall with his other hand. Giving a fake smile and one last wave, he stepped inside.

The door shut. Stoneheart looked around.

The same old townhouse. The same stairs, cluttered with garbage and laundry.

“Ugh. I need to find a maid.” Stoneheart tossed his bag aside and stripped out of his jacket, setting his hat on a stand by the door. Underneath, his suit was a little rumpled, his slicked-back hair slightly out of place. A bag of carryout food hung in one hand. He trudged up the stairs, his eyes set on the ground, skin grayish, dark bags under his eyes. One step at a time, he hauled his tired body upward.

“Wow. You look horrible.”

Stoneheart’s eyes whipped up. He ran toward the top of the stairs.

He stepped on a silk shirt, and his foot flew out from under him. Arms pedaling, he swayed backward, eyes wide with shock.

Levi jumped from the top of the stairs, one foot already extended in a kick. “I can’t believe that wooooooorked!” he shouted, eyes wide with excitement. His foot slammed into Stoneheart’s chest, and they both flew down the stairs. Stoneheart’s arms flailed as he fell, dark eyes staring in shock. Levi grinned, chasing him down.

Abruptly, Stoneheart’s eyes narrowed. Sharp stone spikes about the width of two fingers crashed through the floor beneath them, charging toward Levi.

“Predicted!” Levi shouted, still midair, dropping down on Stoneheart.

A beam jutted out from the wall, catching Stoneheart as he fell. The spikes curved around the plank, then charged at Levi, closing in on him.

“Not predicted!” Levi shouted, startled. His brain worked double-time, and his eyes widened. Fuck! The façade! The stone façade—I thought that shit was fake! Stucco or some shit! Shit, it’s real?

Levi shifted his weight. His front leg struck the spikes, and the spikes tore through it. His body whipped around, slamming into the stone. Muscle tore. Bone creaked. Levi’s face went white, his body trembling from pain. Blood rain down his leg, pouring down the stone and dripping onto the stairs.

Pushing the pain away, he lifted his body as much as he could and slammed it down again, and again. The spikes snapped one after another, stone not structurally sound enough to hold his weight. The last spike broke, and he rolled down toward Stoneheart.

As he passed Stoneheart, he threw his hand out, grabbing for Stoneheart’s neck.

Stoneheart’s eyes widened. Stone spikes jutted out of the platform he laid on and bit into Levi’s hand. Once more, Levi yanked to a halt. He put his feet down on the stairs below him and jerked his hand free.

Stoneheart jumped to his feet, fleeing up the stairs. Levi chased after him, only for a loop of stone to wind around his ankle and jerk him to a halt. He pulled at the loop, but with his leg already torn up, he couldn’t break free. He lifted his other leg to stomp at the loop.

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Stoneheart’s eyes widened. He flicked his hand.

Stone slammed out from the wall of the house and caught Levi by the wrist. It tugged him backward, holding him at an uncomfortable forty-five-degree backward lean.

Levi tugged at the stone, struggling against it. The stone held his wrist tight, so tight he couldn’t twist free. He thrashed helplessly, face twisted in anger.

Stoneheart laughed coldly. He advanced down the stairs toward Levi, one at a time, advancing slowly toward the trapped man. “You thought you could take me on? You thought I was vulnerable at home? Weakened, after the loss of my love?”

Levi glared at him. “You’re the one who attacked me first!”

“Did I? What did I do this time? Did your idiot parents drive into a hole? Did they fall in under a monster? Did I drop a stone, that broke on some monster’s head, and shattered into a thousand tiny shards that gave your grandfather pneumonia?” Stoneheart shook his head. He sighed dramatically.

Levi glared silently. Subtly, his body shifted. His free hand slid behind his back to yank at the trapped one.

“When we fight, when we supers put in the blood, sweat, and tears to keep Central City in one piece, sometimes, there are…side effects. Unavoidable casualties. You citizens, who reap all the benefits of our hard work without putting in a single ounce of effort and live your ordinary lives by trampling our backs, you dare come after us and lay blame on us, for what happens when we work hard to protect your ordinary lives?”

Stoneheart stopped two stairs above Levi and looked down his nose at him.

Levi stared back up, his face white, all the tendons standing out in his neck. He panted slightly, sweat dripping down his face and soaking into his shirt.

Stoneheart harrumphed. “You ants think you have the right to nibble at the gods. Don’t you know? Between ants and gods, only one has the right to hurt the other.”

A stone spike wound from the wall, approaching Levi from behind.

Levi’s head drooped. He gasped, then shook his head. With effort, he looked up at Stoneheart. “You’ve called the cops?”

“I’ll call them once I’ve finished killing you in self-defense,” Stoneheart informed him, flicking a bit of dust off his shoulder.

“Oh. Good.”

Behind him, Levi’s trapped hand plopped to the floor. Levi surged at Stoneheart, throwing his body forward, a bloody knife in one hand and a bloody stump in the place of the other. Stoneheart jerked back, throwing his chest out of Levi’s reach.

Levi slammed his knife into the inside of Stoneheart’s thigh, tearing a deep gash down his leg horizontally.

Stoneheart fell backward. He scuttled up the stairs with his hands and good leg, his face paling. Grabbing onto his leg, he tried and failed to stem the bleeding. “Wh…what?”

Levi laughed as blood gushed out, spraying over the wall and the stairs. He tugged hard, and the stone around his ankle finally shattered. Just as slowly as Stoneheart had approached him, he loomed over Stoneheart, a vile grin on his face. “That’s a vital artery too, you know?”

“I—what do you want? I can pay, I can—”

Levi took a deep breath. He grinned. “What I want…”

“Anything. I can get you anything,” Stoneheart promised.

Behind Levi, the stone spike he’d cut his hand out of surged forward, charging for his heart.

“…Is nothing other than the self-satisfaction of killing those—” Levi dodged to the side, slamming his forearm down on the stone spike as it passed him by. Overextended and unsupported, the stone shattered. He clicked his tongue, shaking his head at the spike, then turned back to Stoneheart. “—of killing those I consider evil.”

Stoneheart’s pants darkened, and not only from blood. He shivered.

Levi kicked the man onto his back. Stoneheart threw his hands up, but was too weak to stop Levi from driving the knife home. Stoneheart’s heart throbbed around his knife once, and then Levi yanked it free, sending a second spray of blood flying. Blood pooled under Stoneheart, and his body weakened. He went limp.

Levi stepped back. Spinning the knife in his hand, he clicked his tongue. “I really need a better catchphrase. This one’s way too wordy.”

He wobbled in place, his face completely bloodless, then fell backward, tumbling bonelessly down the stairs. A sharp snap rang out.

[You lost a life!]

[Lives remaining: -17253]

DEBUG: Corruption Level Medium | Ability Points non-degraded | status GOOD

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