"Let Scarescholar go and fight us fair and square, you freak!" Guardlion roared and ran closer. He had always had quite the temperament when it came to fucking with his friends.

"Careful. If you traverse further she could get you too!" My outburst stopped him in his tracks and he looked at me, gritting his teeth. He clearly didn't like not being able to act.

"If you let Crow go now we will go easy on you. Consider your circumstances." Tin Triumph said calmly and began to melt. Slowly she restructured her body, growing taller and taller in size. "You don't want us to go all out."

Any ordinary rookie villain would've begun to rethink their plans now. In her Giant-Form TT reached a respectable 15 feet in height and with her ability to superheat her own body a single well-placed punch could mean Game Over.

"Well, I'd be pretty stupid to just let my one hostage go just 'cause ya asked nicely. But tell ya what, if ya want him out of the way, I can arrange that." In one swift motion, she pointed her wand at the weight buried in the concrete from her failed attack on the Wizard and lifted it high up in the air above my head. Both Tin Triumph and Guardlion stared at her, clearly taken aback.

"You wouldn't dare!" he spat. Witchling just grinned wider.

"Oh, wouldn't I? Wouldn't I really?" she taunted and lowered her arm with as much force as she could muster. The weight began falling downwards toward my vessel's head at an alarming speed. I had to admit, I was a tad nervous. This bit had been fully improvised by her. I knew of course that she would never purposefully kill someone in cold blood, but, well..... "Purposefully" was the operative word here.

I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact when I felt someone forcefully push me to the ground. I opened my eyes just in time to see the weight impact on Guardlion's head. He had pushed me out of the way just in the nick of time. Instead of crushing his skull like it would've done to my puppet, the weight broke in half, the two pieces falling harmlessly on the ground beside him. "Kid gloves are off now." he said, keeping his eyes fixed on Jess.

I scrambled to my feet, now just a few inches away from him. So this was Jess' plan. Clever girl.

Despite Scarescholar mostly keeping away from the action there was always the possibility that a villain's Power or the circumstances of the fight forced him to get up close and personal. So he of course had to have a way to dispatch hostiles in close range. The available tech- and magitech options were nearly limitless but the Yellowbricks had decided on a tried and true classic: The Shock-Gloves.

On the palm of each of his gloves were three small buttons that could be covertly pressed while making a fist. When all three are pushed down simultaneously that glove will carry enough charge to incapacitate anyone for at least a minute or two. Not a whole lot on the surface, but there is a ton that can be done to render someone harmless in one or two minutes.

"Everything okay, Scare?" he asked, eyes still fixed on his enemy.

"As much as the circumstances allow." I replied, closing my hand and charging the left glove. Carefully I stretched my arm out towards him. He was already on guard and I didn't want to tip him off with any sudden movements. My hand was a hair's breadth away from his back when he suddenly whipped his head backward. My hand retreated immediately, but he was not looking at me.

"Dorothy! Pull us out of reach of her Power!" he yelled. The ironclad woman who was still kneeling beside her downed and writhing boss looked at him, nodded, stood up, and clicked her heels together. With a bright flash, she was gone and instantly reappeared behind us. Before I could say or do anything she put a hand on each of our shoulders, clicked her heels again, and a split-second later I found myself back near the bus.

"Get Scare a safe distance away. TT and I will keep her busy until you're back. Then we'll do Action Plan C." Guardlion said sternly. "We'll show this bitch what happens when you mess with the Yellowbrick Society."

She just nodded. I glanced down at the Wizard lying on the floor beside me. Dame Dorothy had removed the Scrambler, but the effect would still last a while. While attached to someone it constantly reapplied an hour-long curse, so even after removal the victim had to endure a full additional hour of torture. And dispelling curses is only something a Warlock can do, of which there were precious few around.

Dame Dorothy grabbed my shoulder again and with a flash, we were suddenly on a nearby balcony. Another flash and her short-range teleportation brought us to an adjacent building's roof.

I had expected her to leave me here and immediately go back down, but instead, she turned around to face me. "Everything okay, Nigel?" she asked, worry heavily tinging her voice. This was the first time she had spoken since I Possessed her teammate.

How should I respond to that? I thought about it for a second.

"I....I really don't feel too great, Dorothy. I think this witch did something to my brain. It....it's hard to think clearly." I was banking on my speculation that his use of difficult words was just a gimmick for the public. I fell down, acting as if my strength suddenly left me.

She immediately knelt down and helped me sit up again. "She must've planned this in advance. You've been a little off since we left the museum. That must've been when she got you." Damn. I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought. But it seemed like it had worked out anyway somehow. "Can I leave you here? Will you be fine for a bit? Or should I 'port us to a hospital?"

I shook my head, but then an idea sprung forth in my head. With Scarescholar being mentally woozy and unstable right now, maybe....

"I think all I need right now is a friendly face." I reached up with my right hand and carefully lifted the visor of her helmet. The worried face of an older woman came into view. She was lightly chewing on her bottom lip and the few strands of her hair visible in the helmet stuck to her face with sweat. If regular costumes were already unbearably hot a full suit of armor must've felt like being trapped in purgatory. Once the visor was fully open she forced a smile and gave me a thumbs-up.

"Friendly face deployed." she said with a shaky laugh.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Without a word, I slowly reached up with my left hand and touched her cheek with my still-charged Shock Glove. As soon as my finger touched her her whole body tensed up and she collapsed onto the ground with a loud metallic clang.

I had to act fast now. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed a little blue and yellow toy-like gun from Scarescholar's gadget belt. This was an Incapacitator. A small water-gun-like contraption that fired a liquid that almost immediately solidified and expanded into a thick, glue-like substance that was hard to remove. Almost useless in active combat, but perfect for restraining a downed villain. Or a hero in this case.

With practiced ease, I shot a line of the substance across each of her wrists and watched as it grew and stuck her to the ground. Normally this was enough but this lady's ability was activated with her feet, so they had to be restrained too. I spread her legs far enough apart to make sure her heels had no way to connect with each other and then shot the liquid across both her ankles.

Two down. Two to go.

I was tempted to stay there and wait for her to recover so I could gloat, but I thought better of it. Right now the remaining Yellowbricks were stalling Jess, waiting for Dame Dorothy to return, but there was a possibility that they would forego their plans and attack if she took too long. I hurried towards the roof exit and ran down the stairs of the apartment building she brought us on top of.

A thing about Scarescholar I noticed at this point was that despite definitely being way, way smarter than I was he was a whole lot less athletic. When I reached the bottom of the stairs I was winded. I sat down on the last step and caught my breath for a minute when I thought of something. I fumbled around the gadget belt until I found what I was looking for. A little green bottle. I took it out and checked the label. Yep, that was an InVigor alright.

Magitech wasn't the only product mages had to offer. Specifically, Witches were able to brew potions. Nothing crazy, like in folklore, just basic stuff. In fact, there was a Supervillain whose Power it was to create these crazy insane concoctions with weird ingredients and she was thoroughly disavowed by pretty much any actual Potionist, both for not being an actual mage and for creating false expectations in the minds of the public.

InVigor was a good example of the limitations of actual Witches. The drink fully refreshed your stamina, made you feel like you had just had a great long thorough night's sleep, and made you more aware of your surroundings.

But 24 hours after consumption all that wear, tear, and exhaustion would catch up with you with a vengeance. One dose was enough to knock you flat for three whole days, so I had never used it despite being able to afford it.

Well, this wasn't my body I was fucking up, so I might as well. I opened the lid and emptied the small bottle in one gulp. Immediately I could feel the strength returning to my doll's bones. This was amazing! Not quite the rush I felt while I was piloting Leotigris' hulking body, but it was great nonetheless.

Without a moment's hesitation, I got up and ran out the door. As soon as I stepped outside I heard loud crashing noises and felt my heart sink. Had they gone ahead and attacked early? Dame Dorothy was supposed to return right away but she did spend quite a bit of time making sure her friend was okay. I hurried down the street until I came into full view of the battle.

The crashing noise came from the empty car Jess had used to force the tour bus to stop. While I was away she had picked it up again and used it as a sort of telekinetic flail against Tin Triumph. The giant silver woman had caught it in her hands and crushed it. Jess was still holding the destroyed car in the air.

"Lion, I don't think we need to wait until Dory returns. This one seems a lot less capable than we initially assumed." she said in her strange uncanny voice.

"Hey, don't ya underestimate me. I may be not as tall as ya but I took out your big boss man by myself." Jess retorted, sounding convincingly offended. Maybe she really was.

"You used underhanded trickery and deception to best our leader. Now that that is no longer possible you are not a threat anymore. Let me demonstrate." TT held up her arm and her hand began to melt and deform. In just a few seconds it had turned into a sharp spear, still attached at the wrist. She drew back and threw her arm forward. Near the end of the swing, her wrist melted away and the spear flew in Jess' direction. I started running towards them while still keeping my eye on the action.

The projectile whizzed past Jess, who had enough good sense to dodge in time. She looked at Tin Triumph, bewildered. "Are ya trying to kill me, Lady?!"

TT smirked. "We gave you the chance to do this the easy way. This is the hard way. And no. Heroes don't kill. You don't seem very intelligent, but you should know that much at least." While she was talking I watched with mounting horror as the spear behind Jess stopped in midair, turned around, and flew back towards her.

"Witchling! Behind you!" I yelled as loud as I could. Cover be damned, Jess was more important. Both heroes turned to look at me while Jess turned around. She tried to dodge the metal spike but it was too late. Her swerve made a throw that was clearly aimed at her shoulder pierce right through her free hand instead.

"Aaaaaaaah!!! Fuck!" she screamed, finally dropping the crushed car.

"Crow, what is going on?" Tin Triumph asked while Guardlion started walking in my direction.

"Are you working with her? Are you even Scarescholar? Where is Dorothy?" he yelled.

"Hey, assholes!! Don't forget about me!" Jess interjected, clearly still in pain.

"You're right. Let's finish you first." TT said and the spear still stuck inside Jess' hand liquified and encased her hand.

"Aaaaaah! Hot! Too hot!" she exclaimed as the metal began climbing up her arm. She frantically pointed her wand at a different unoccupied car and threw it at the silver giant who effortlessly caught it again. "Let go of me!" she yelled.

Tin Triumph laughed. "You are powerless against the might of Oz."

"I said! Let! Me! Go!!!" When she uttered that last word something unexpected happened. Her bracelet started emitting a golden light. The car she was currently lifting started glowing similarly. Before anyone could utter a word the car violently exploded in Tin Triumph's hands. Luckily she was the sole person present who could easily survive something like this.

A much bigger problem was the flaming car parts flying every which way.

Everyone reacted quickly, years of heroic experience driving their body on autopilot.

Tin Triumph released Jess and used her now scattered body to form debris shields around civilians.

Guardlion threw himself between a burning car door and a group of gawking teenagers.

I took out the gadget I was sure was not going to get any use today when I read up on Scarescholar's tech. Repulso-Grenades. Little pyramids that on contact with the ground pushed everything and anyone in a five-foot radius to the side. I saw two wheels on a collision course with onlookers and threw one grenade each in both crowds. Some of these poor idiots would definitely scrape something during the fall, but that was still better than being hit by a flaming car wheel.

Once I was done I looked around to survey the situation. Luckily no civilians seemed to be seriously hurt. But what had happened with Jess' bracelet? We had to talk about this once we were done here.

While the confusion was still palpable I quickly walked up to Guardlion who was being profusely thanked by the teens he just saved, charged my right glove, and socked him in the face. He went down instantly.

"Hey..." one of the teens started but I grabbed her by the collar and threw her to the ground.

"Don't interfere." I growled. The other kids picked up their friend and ran away while I affixed Guardlion to the pavement with the Incapacitator. As soon as I was done Jess landed next to me and stepped off her broom. "What was that just now?" I asked, referring to the golden glow and the explosion.

"I..I don't know...." she stammered and looked at her bracelet. She was clearly still out of it, and I couldn't blame her. But still...

"We can discuss this later. For now, we need to focus." I pointed at the metallic goo that was slowly forming back into an actual person. All that was recognizable right now was a very, very angry silver face.

Three down. One to go.