As the cold sensation flowed into Levi’s chest, he stabbed his knife deep into Alpha’s chest. Behind him, Rachel screamed. She raced toward both of the men and grabbed Levi’s arm, ineffectually.

Levi stared up at Alpha, almost unable to believe what he saw. Blood bubbled up on Alpha’s lips and soaked down his ribs. Alpha stumbled back, and the knife slid free. He put a hand to his chest.

“I…I was right. When you operate your skill-stealing skill, you can’t use any of your other skills. Maybe it’s the same skill that allows you to use all those skills. Maybe it just has some restrictive requirement. I don’t know, but I knew it. I knew you couldn’t use any other skills when it was active. Why else restrain supers while you suck the skills out of them, when you’re so overwhelmingly powerful?” Levi lifted his knife, looking at the blood glinting on its surface. He lowered his eyes, looking down at Alpha.

Alpha tripped. He fell to the ground. Blood gushed out of his chest.

Rachel tried to hold him up, but couldn’t carry his weight. She followed him to the floor. “Help him! Help—do something! Call 911!”

Levi stood over Alpha. Alpha put his hand to his chest again, then looked up at Levi, the same betrayed look on his face that Levi knew he’d worn himself, all those years ago. “Why?”

“You know why. Somewhere deep in that ruined mind of yours, you know,” Levi hissed.

Alpha stayed blank. He shook his head and furrowed his brows. “Aren’t we sworn bothers? Aren’t we…”

Levi knelt. He offered Alpha his hand, and Alpha took it. His lips trembled, and he lowered his eyelids. “I wish. I wish we still were. I wish—I wish all those decades never happened. The ones you don’t remember. I wish…”

He looked up. Alpha’s eyes were empty. Nothing remained.

Levi stood. He backed away. Put a hand over his face.

Rachel looked at him. “What—what are you doing? You aren’t. You aren’t crying.”

Tears poured down his face. His chest shuddered with sobs. He tried to hold it back, but he couldn’t stop himself. Everything hit him all at once. The exhaustion. The weariness. Elation and sadness. His expression twitched, shifting from a smile to a frown in seconds, then bag again.

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“Stop crying! You aren’t allowed to cry!” Rachel bawled, still holding Alpha.

Levi wiped his face. Rage broke through all the other emotions, and he glared at her. “The fuck? Where the fuck do you have the right to tell me how to feel, huh? I’ve been his best friend-worst enemy for decades. Decades. You screwed him for a fuckin’ year. God. Breeders and their fuckin’ bullshit possessiveness.”

“Wh…what? Did you just call me a breeder?” Rachel asked, flabbergasted.

“No, I called you and Alpha collectively breeders.” Levi looked at her and Alpha’s body, then jolted. “That’s right!” He sprinted across the room to the phone.

“Call the police!” Rachel urged him.

“The fuck kinda murderer calls the police on himself?” Levi squinted at her and shook his head at the stupidity. He picked up the phone without dialing a number.

The phone spoke to him. “Please leave a message for the Mass Super Messaging system (MSM) at the tone. When you put the headset down, the system will ring every super in Central City.”

“Smart guy, having his system remind him what to do,” Levi muttered. He cleared his throat.

The tone sounded.

“ALRIGHT, listen up, motherfuckers! I killed Alpha. He’s fuckin’ dead. It’s over. But you know what? Our city’s being taken apart by some bullshit monsters. Some idiot cult called the Apostles of the End summoned Gates all over the city, because they want to take our home down.

“So? You gonna let them?”

Levi took a deep breath. He paused, then spoke again, his voice even this time. “Alpha isn’t here, people. He isn’t. We all knew he wasn’t going to be around forever…me, maybe, moreso than any of you. But he’s gone. He’s gone, and do you know what that means?

“That means Central City isn’t Alpha’s anymore. It’s ours. All of ours. If we don’t protect it…” He looked at the floor, then looked up again. In his heart, he looked all the supers in the eye, from Bubblegum Pink and Bear Arms to Amethyst and Six Shooter. “If we don’t protect our home, no one will.”

He raised his voice. “Get out there! Fight! And believe in yourself. We own Central City. All of us. Together! And we aren’t going to let any fucking cult TAKE OUR CITY!”

He slammed the receiver down, and let out a sigh. He shook his head at the phone. “Fuck, that felt good.”

Rachel just stared at him. “What are you? Who are you? You kill Alpha, then rally the supers? You treat him like a friend, then stab him in the chest? Who are you?”

Levi grinned at her as he backed toward the stairs. At the entrance to the fire exit, he tossed her a salute. “Leviathan Summers. Ex-research subject, current private super. Some call me a hero, some call me a villain, but everyone agrees I get the job done.

“I’ll see you on the other side, beautiful.”

The tower shook again, and Levi nodded at her. “Oh, and you might wanna get outta here. There’s a bigass monster stuck in the first floor, and I’m pretty sure it can take this whole place down if it wants.”

“What?” Rachel asked, startled.

With a final grin and a flourish, Levi vanished down the stairs.