Two men faced off against each other.

Bevan stood on one side, both hands clutching the grip of the sword. There should have been fear in his eyes. After all, he was facing someone who had single-handedly came close to destroying his base and going toe-to-toe against his entire team. He wasn’t facing an evenly-matched battle. He was against a superior opponent.

Yet Maitho saw only sadness in Bevan’s eyes. The man’s pose wasn’t threatening. Nor did he look like he was even trying to defend himself. Instead, he just stood there, merely clutching the sword as though it were an accessory he had brought along.

Raiden, on the other hand, looked like he had been on a stroll and had just encountered an acquaintance he hadn’t spoken to in a while. Mjollnir might as well be his walking stick, a tool he carried with him outside.

At that moment, Maitho realized something. He was looking at two men who didn’t just recognize each other, but perhaps understood one another. They had been allies. Maybe even good friends.

“What purpose is any of this going to serve?” said Bevan, shouting his words louder than required despite the fact that Raiden wasn’t standing more than a few meters away from him.

“You’re about an hour too late to ask that question, friend,” said Raiden. He had dropped the hammer head-down on the ground. He still had a hand on the pommel, lazily moving it in a circle.

“You blew up Maitho’s apartment.”

“Of course I did. I gave you specific instructions. I didn’t ask you to plan anything. We were going to enjoy what might have been the best breakfast you have had. Then we were going to have a little talk.”

“What would you expect us to do?” said Bevan, raising one hand in a show of question. “What would you have done if you were in our position?”

“Firstly, I wouldn’t be in your position. You’re ignorant and I am not you.”

“What does that even mean?”

Raiden cocked his head to the side. There was a smile on his face, but it did not reach his eyes. For some reason, he looked dejected. “You won’t understand what I am doing, Bevan. At least, not now. Not at this moment.”

“Then tell me. I am listening. We don’t have to do any of this. You can still come back.”

Raiden shook his hand, his eyes looking at Bevan with sadness. “I don’t think you want to listen. You’re probably going to wait until I exhaust myself speaking. Then you’re going to try to tell me why I am wrong or what I need to do to stop. If nothing works, you’re going to label me as crazy.” He removed his hands from the hammer. Even though Mjollnir was leaning at an angle close to the ground, it didn’t fall. Instead, it just stood there as though an invisible hand was holding it steady. “But crazy is often someone’s explanation for something they can’t understand.”

Inside the vehicle, Brigid press-checked her handgun to see if there was a bullet in the chamber. “No matter what we throw at him, Raiden is the superior fighter,” she said. “We should be ready for anything.” She offered Maitho a look. “We’ll step out when I give the signal.”

“I don't think you have much long for that,” said Quinn.

Behind them, two vans were moving in their direction. The vehicles were closing in fast. If they don’t act fast, they might end up cornered. What concerned Maitho was that they had no idea what numbers they were going up against. Were there a dozen attackers? Two dozen? Maybe more?

“Tell me something.” Outside, it seemed as though Bevan wasn’t finished with the conversation. “What did you do to Angus?”

The vans were closing in on them. Epona summoned four horses, two for each van. The horses sandwiched the vehicles, running alongside them. Whatever plan Epona had never came into fruition. Guns appeared out of the vehicles and before anyone could react, they fired into the faces of the running animals. With a loud neigh, the horses dissipated into mist.

“I told you,” Maitho heard Raiden say. “You are not going to listen. But let’s not waste time here because I can see my associates are here and we need to skip to the main part.”

“Get out everyone,” said Quinn.

“Why?” said Epona. “What are ye going tae dae?”

“You need to support Bevan. I’ll take care of any distractions.”

Outside Bevan spoke. "You haven't answered my question."

“I’ll answer your questions,” said Raiden. “I’ll answer all of them. In fact, I might just throw in dinner as well. I can put it on the company budget. It helps that I have a deep well of cash.” He grabbed Mjollnir and lifted it up. “The only way you are going to find out anything is if you can bring me down and keep me there.” He tossed the hammer from one hand to another. “I, on the other hand, will pummel you to submission. If I win, then you will do nothing but shut up and do what I say.”

“Please don’t do this,” said Bevan. He held the sword upright. His body tensed, even though Raiden didn’t look like he was about to attack.

“Let’s speed this up, shall we?” said Raiden. He pointed his hand at Quinn, arcs of lightning powering up around his arm.

“No,” screamed Bevan. Before anyone could grasp what had happened, he had leaped forward with his sword held out in front of him. The tip of the weapon was pointed towards his target.

Despite the fact that the blade looked like it was intended for a killing blow, it almost seemed as though Bevan wasn’t intending to harm the other man. Maitho had seen him leap towards his enemies and he was quite fast. Yet here he was moving slower, as though giving a warning that he was attacking.

At the last second, Raiden swung Mjollnir in a one-handed strike, hitting the sword and deflecting it away. He redirected the arm that was charging up with lightning at Bevan and let go of a blast of energy. The surroundings were illuminated in blue as the attack threw the red-haired man into a stack of pallets by the warehouse entrance.

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Raiden didn’t pause. He launched another lightning strike before the fallen man could recover.

Yet it seemed he had underestimated his opponent. Bevan was already on his feet and held Freagarach in front of him. The sword blocked the lightning and split it into two, sending blasts of energy arcing safely on either side of him.

With his free hand, he grabbed a pallet and launched it at Raiden.

The projectile moved fast. Too fast. It was a blink-and-you-missed-it moment. But if the pallet had considerable speed, then Raiden had considerable reflexes. He batted the flying object with the hammer, sending it flying above the top of the warehouse. Bevan had taken the brief opportunity he had received and leaped forwards, sword in one hand and another pallet in the other.

Raiden shot forward as well, a move that was both unpredictable and quick. He blasted the pallet to smithereens and swung the hammer. Bevan had no choice but to defend.

When metal came into contact with metal, a shockwave exploded outwards. Arcs of electricity blasted outwards. Raiden stood his ground, unaffected by the wave. Bevan on the other hand wasn’t so lucky as he was flung into the outer perimeter wall surrounding the warehouse, crashing through it and disappearing on the other side.

“Get out now and save your friend,” said Quinn. This time, there was no mistaking the tone of his voice. It wasn’t filled with his usual mirth. This time, he was giving an order and one had to truly ask themselves if it was worth being defiant. Maitho chose to open the door and step out, heeding the command.

As soon as the women were also outside, Quinn reversed. He skidded around until his headlights were facing the two vans, which were now slowing down to a parking position. His back tires revved, throwing up stones and dirt. Then he shot forward so fast that his front tires lifted up. Eventually, all four tires were in contact with the ground and before anyone could shout a warning, he rammed into one of the vans. There was the sound of metal crashing into metal. The resulting impact tossed the van into the air, where it spun twice before landing on its roof.

Quinn reversed again, making another spin. This time however, he did not face the remaining van. Instead, he allowed the front part of the car to continue on its spin until it clipped the second van on its side. One of the doors of the van opened, but if anyone wanted to step outside, they never got their chance. The van was flipped onto its side.

A silence followed where the only sounds Maitho could hear was the wind whooshing in his ears.

“Raiden,” a cry broke out, piercing the air like a challenge. Bevan walked through the gap in the wall that he had created when he had crashed through it. “Please end this. We are going to destroy each other at this rate.”

“Each other?” said Raiden, surprise showing on his face. “You are the only one going to be hurt in this fight. If you really want to end this, then we stick to the deal we made.”

“You were one of us. You were our ally. A friend.” Bevan seemed to be pleading his case. “You still are.”

“Oh you fool.”

Something about the way Raiden said it made Maitho alert. He pushed with his mind…

...and watched as Raiden had his arm pointed at him. No. Not at him.

At Brigid.

Arcs of electricity swirled, ready to discharge the powerful energy they were holding back…

...and when Maitho returned to his body, he didn't wait to check if his vision was about to come true. He leaped to the side, catching Brigid by surprise. He tackled her to the ground and felt the lightning barely miss his back.

When the two landed on the ground, Bevan’s voice of panic broke out. “This is between you and me. Leave them out of this.”

Brigid had pushed herself to one knee, her handgun in her hands. She let loose shot after shot, keeping a steady rhythm. None of the bullets found their mark. As expected, they simply struck Raiden’s shield.

The descendant of Thor responded. This time, he launched an attack.

At Epona.

The woman was not expecting it and found herself struck squarely in the chest by the powerful energy.

“No,” screamed Bevan and launched himself in the air, a move that was purely emotional. Because of that, it left a lot of openings, one of which was the fact that it took longer for him to complete the arc of the jump before he could reach his target.

Raiden, on the other hand, reacted by launching himself towards Bevan. He swung his hammer in midair and while the blow was deflected, the impact and the resulting shockwave sent the red-haired man speeding towards the ground.

Bevan landed on his back hard, sending dust and rocks exploding outwards.

At that moment, the sound of a speeding vehicle reached Maitho’s ears. He spotted Quinn racing towards them, picking up speed quickly. He was heading straight for Raiden, who simply stood and watched the incoming vehicle with amusement. It was frustrating watching him simply treat the entire situation with nonchalance, as though he were dealing with rowdy children and not Guardians who each had their own special skills.

Just before Quinn could strike him, Raiden sidestepped away from the path of the vehicle and swung his hammer. The weapon struck the car under the hood, launching it several meters into the air as though it had just hit a ramp. Maitho watched the car rolling in midair as it helplessly drew closer and closer to a crash landing.

Yet it wasn’t a car that eventually landed.

While still in the air, Maitho watched in amazement as Quinn’s body began to shift. Parts moved, transformed, and disappeared, just like they do when the car intended to change its outer appearance. This time, something was different.

Quinn was getting smaller. Or rather, he was getting thinner. There were other outwardly changes as well, but they were too complex and too quick to grasp.

Before he could meet the ground, Quinn's transformation was complete.

He had become a motorbike, landing on two wheels. He skidded to a stop, turning around so he could face Raiden.

Maitho pushed himself to his feet. Besides him, Brigid had done the same. He looked around for Epona and found that she had already recovered. She was clutching her abdomen, but her eyes shone with an intense fury. On the other side of the small battlefield, Bevan slowly rose with the Freagarach still clutched in his hands.

Raiden spun around slowly, eyeing each person and the one car. “Finally, you have decided to take this seriously.”

“Make your opponent kneel and you claim victory. That was your condition wasn’t it?” Bevan spoke.

“Indeed,” said Raiden and readied the Mjollnir, gripping it in one hand. “Hope you’re ready for the meeting.”

“If we make you kneel,” said Bevan. “Then you quit working for Cray. You stop whatever you are doing and come with us. No questions asked.”

“That won’t happen, but I agree. Also, I don’t think this is going to be a one on one anymore.” Raiden waved his arm around to indicate the three people and one car who looked like they were poised to attack.

“This is between him and me,” said Bevan, shouting so that his words were unmistakable. “No one comes in between.”

Before anyone could respond to that, Raiden interrupted. “Actually, I would like you all to come at me together. I prefer to make you all submit at the same time. Rather convenient, you know?”

“Then I hope you are ready to know what it feels like to lose Raiden,” said Bevan and raised the sword.