Gold met green as Battery swung a golden sword of energy out, clashing with Green Wolf’s knife. “So, you’re just stealing the Victorian’s moves now? Don’t you think a sword made of light is a little too on the nose?” Green Wolf smirked.
“In all fairness, I was using a sword way before her.” The hero grumbled. “She copied my style.”
“Oh, so you do know the number one hero?”
Battery made a face. “I shouldn’t have said that. Oh well, guess I’ll just kill you.”
Green Wolf lazily spun his knife and swung it. Battery threw his arm out, causing a golden shield of light to swirl from his wrist and block the strike. It still shoved him back and left dozens of large cracks across the barrier, but it held strong.
“Energy-based people like you or the Victorian always tick me off.” Green Wolf pulled a second blade out from his sleeve. It was longer than his others and filled with a jagged razor-sharp edge. “Kinetic energy doesn’t mesh well with other forms of created energy, and you guys can always find ways to get past my barrier. Of course, I bet even someone like you would have trouble blocking constant near-death strikes.”
Battery smirked as he entered a boxing stance and got rid of his sword, which dissolved away. “Trust me. When it comes to death, I’ve been pretty lucky. Besides, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I’m going to take you down and save those kids.”
Green Wolf threw his knife towards Battery, but the man punched it out of midair. The villain swung his jagged blade, sending debris flying as the ground was torn to bits, but Battery jumped out of the way of the slash. The parking lot was split in two from the swing, and cars were thrown high into the air from the force of the attack.
Battery zoomed out of the way as they dropped, skating across the ground with super speed. As he got distance from Green Wolf, he blasted out a beam of energy from his finger. “Bang!”
Green Wolf dodged past the attack, but with a twitch of a finger, Battery caused the beam to suddenly curve like a snake and circle back around, smashing into the back of the Zoo leader and causing Green Wolf to howl as his nerves ignited.
As Green Wolf was being shocked by the laser, Battery held his other arm out. Golden chains, the same kind the Victorian used to bind her enemies, fired out of the man’s palm and began to wrap around the villain’s body. Battery twisted his body, the chain picking Green Wolf up and smashing the man through one of the cars that was still in the air.
Green Wolf grunted as the golden chains squeezed down on his gut, and with a tug from Battery, he as well as the car he was half way through was smashed into the ground hard enough to cause the vehicle to explode. Green Wolf slowly climbed out of the wreckage, ignoring the flames as he dusted himself off.
“You know, that was kind of a dick move. You knew that wouldn’t hurt me, right? So you just went and ruined whoever owned this car.” The villain taunted.
“You already totaled the car with one of your slashes.” Battery snorted. “Though I will be the first to admit the owner won’t be happy with me either.” He pulled his hand back, causing the chain to wrap around Green Wolf’s ankle. “I’ll just have to make sure I avenge that car by taking you out.”
Battery held onto the chains with one hand, pulling Green Wolf towards him, and with his other hand, he smashed it into the villain’s face, throwing them back. The chain caught as the villain was thrown far enough, and he tugged on it again, bringing Green Wolf back towards his fist, ready to do it all over again.
Before Battery could land another attack, the chains became empty as Green Wolf vanished in a loud ‘popping’ sound. The man appeared behind Battery and stabbed out with his knife, tearing the flesh from the hero’s arm when Battery tried to block.
Blood still didn’t flow out of any of his wounds, however, staying put in his body. Green Wolf became determined to see the man bleed and vanished again, appearing behind Battery. The villain racked the edge across the man’s side, ripping into it, and another knife appeared in his grasp, which he rammed into Battery’s leg.
Battery grabbed the man by his suit’s jacket and yanked Green Wolf towards him. He smashed his head directly into the Zoo leader’s nose, and from beneath the animal mask, blood began to flow. Green Wolf gurgled and formed another knife in his hand, which he attempted to stab into the back of Battery’s head.
Battery shoved the man away from him but wasn’t fast enough, feeling the knife stab into his lower back. Before Green Wolf even finished stumbling back, he threw more knives out, which stabbed into Battery’s stomach, leaving nearly six blades buried in the man’s flesh. It seemed with the help of his teleportation, Green Wolf had no limit to how many weapons he could bring to him, more and more knives simply appearing, which the villain tossed out, coating all of them with waves of kinetic energy that allowed it to pierce through Battery’s barrier.
The hero reached up and used his sleeve to wipe at his bloody face as he breathed heavily. “You know, you’re not too bad. Shame you picked the side of evil.”
“Ah, is this the part where the old man tries to lecture me about how I can be better? I’ll pass.” Green Wolf wrapped his fingers around a large claymore that appeared out of nowhere, and he swung out, attempting to slice Battery in two. Battery held his hand out, forming a golden shield that blocked the sword; with his other hand, he blasted out dozens of golden beams out of each of his fingers.
Five lasers smashed into Green Wolf, and the man screamed in pain as smoke began to roll off of his body, his flesh sparking with enough energy to show off his bones. The villain fell to his knees, breathing heavily. “Damn it. The only reason you’re doing so well is because you can bypass my kinetic absorption with your own energy. If not for that, you’d be dead, you know.”
“Wasn’t it you who complained that the rules were too easy? Or is it that now that you’re actually struggling, you hate it? I don’t think you want a hard game or an easy game. You want something that will barely challenge you, but you can still overcome it, right?” Battery taunted.
Green Wolf forced himself to stand back up. “You’re starting to really piss me off, you know. I murdered Green Tiger for this position; I fought Polaron to a standstill to earn my ranking; I survived going toe-to-toe with the Victorian to show that I’m the top dog.” The claymore vanished, replaced by a new sword. One that caused pain to shoot through Battery’s chest when he saw it. A white blade that swirled with hundreds of runes. Story Maker had arrived. “Let’s see how you—ah. Never mind. Looks like you’ve reached your limit.”
Battery was forced to kneel as he caught his breath. He placed his hand over his heartbeat, feeling it gradually turn into a painful melody. All this fighting was starting to get to him. And even if he didn’t bleed like a normal Super, his body still had dozens of holes in it. Just seeing that sword was enough to make him recall the bad days. The pain grew worse, and he could feel the shard of metal inside of him burning and going deeper into his chest.
The sword vanished. The villain could tell he didn’t need to bring a weapon that powerful out. Not right now. He picked up one of his many knives and played with the blade before pointing it towards Battery’s neck. “Any last words?” Green Wolf asked.
Battery looked at the blood on his hands. “Enemy of Man.”
“What?” Green Wolf frowned and rested his sword down. “The hell does that mean?”
Battery ignored him as he thought back to what Nick had said. He had been on the beach practicing his lasers as he caught his breath. He watched as the wave fell after he split it in half with his golden energy. “It’s not enough. I’m not as strong as I was back then.” He grumbled.
Nick rested on the roof of the car, dressed in his old uniform he had worn when he worked for the Hero Branch. It was what you’d see a scientist in a movie or comic wearing. A long, flowing white coat like the one Paragon had.
Nick stared down at the device he used to scan Jack and frowned. “Yeah, you’re a ton weaker than you were in your prime. Really let yourself go, man.”
Jack clenched his hand into a fist, watching the golden lightning. “It’s this damn energy. It’s not mine.” The shard in his chest ached. The one that gave him the golden light he constantly used. “I’m just using a small bit of her power and trying to make it my own. Only the scraps that I can borrow thanks to the little gift she left me inside of my heart. You think if I used my-”
“No! No, no, no, no!” Nick jumped to his feet, shaking his head. “Fifteen years ago, the Victorian accidentally stabbed you with a fraction of her power. That shard within you is what gives you her energy. It doesn’t like you and wants you dead. Use your own energy, and that thing will go off for sure, sooner or later. Your heart wouldn’t just explode; you'd be a walking bomb!”
“How long?”
“Huh?”
“How long would it take for it to kill me?” Jack asked, cocking his head to the side, a sly smirk on his lips.
“No!”
“Nick. Answer the question.”
Nick sighed, folding his arms. “Okay. Look, man. Not a lot of time. Maybe a minute or two if you’re lucky. Anything over though could be bad. Since it’s so little time, you shouldn’t use it at all, okay?”
“What are you talking about?” Jack clenched his fists hard enough to dig his nails into his palm as he smirked. For a moment, a flare of blue seemed to course through his veins. “One minute is more than enough to deal with most threats. After all, I'm the strongest. I’ll take my enemy down in just one attack.”
Back in the present, he stared down at the floor, breathing heavily as Green Wolf watched him.
“I said 'Enemy of Man'.” Battery muttered. “In a lot of stories, they're always described as the enemy of man.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What's the enemy of Man?”
Battery pushed himself up to his feet. The golden glow began to grow brighter around him, and then, in a bright flash, it suddenly shifted. His iris no longer glowed with gold, nor did the black of his costume, replaced instead with a crackling blue energy. Lightning began to spill off of him and twist in the air behind him. Green Wolf jumped back, staring at the hero in shock. The blue glow got brighter and ate away at the light around the both of them.
“Giants were always described as the enemy of Man in all the stories.” Battery spoke softly. The energy moved itself around his arm, which he clenched into a fist. “In other words, I'm the perfect weapon when faced with a human.”
And before Green Wolf could even think about teleporting, the only thing he saw was a glowing blue fist the size of a building.
***
Hope took a deep breath to calm herself down.
It wasn’t the first time she had this beast of a villain charge at her, but something about this situation was different from last time. Intake was bigger than he had been the day he fought her and Mr. Larison, and this time, his skin had turned a silvery shade from the metal he absorbed. Standing at nearly thirteen feet tall, Intake raised his arm up as high as he could, flexing.
“Let’s start with something basic, shall we, girl?” The villain’s fist shimmered and began to morph, taking the shape of a massive hammer, which he brought down towards her so fast it let out a loud crack through the air. “I’ll split that cute little skull of yours right open!”
Everything seemed to move in slow motion as her eyes stared up at the hammer. She took a deep breath of air, and with inhuman speed, she sidestepped the hammer strike with ease. It hit the roof hard enough to send a shock wave out in all directions and shake the building. She managed to keep her balance, though Red Ape, White Spider, and White Lamb all nearly fell over.
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“Whoa, watch the friendly fire!” Red Ape hissed. “My bubble pops; she takes out Spidey and Lamb. We’re in deep shit if that happens.”
Intake ignored the warning, giving a twisted smile as he swung out another fist towards her, this time the limb morphing into a jagged blade. “You’ve gone and gotten some new moves, girly.” The villain snickered. “Too bad it won’t help you!”
Just like in her fight with Red Raptor, she ducked her head down and used her helmet as a shield. Intake’s blade bounced off of it and caught the villain off guard. “I have a name now, you know.” Intake growled and went to jump away, but she struck out using the same moves Mr. Larison showed her. First was a powerful jab directly into the man’s guts. It didn’t matter that he was made of metal; her fist dented his stomach and caused him to cough out. “I’m Cinder.” She followed the strike up with a powerful right hook, ramming it into his chest since he was too tall for her to punch his face.
Intake was sent flying back the force of her attack, blasting him off of the roof and sending him right out of the parking lot. It didn’t last long though, as not even a second later he reappeared back in front of her and stumbled down into a sitting position.
Slowly the villain’s face twisted into a grin, and he reached up, wiping the black blood that dripped down his chin away. He stood back up, and his metal gut popped back into place, all the dents vanishing. “This might be more fun than I thought.”
She pointed her hand out and blasted out a bolt of fire toward him. The fire was sort of like one of the lasers Mr. Larison would blast out, but it came from her palm. Intake stood up, and his entire stomach seemed to open up and twist, forming a hole. Her fire entered the hole, and it closed up, swallowing the attack up. Jagged pipes formed out of the monster's back, and her fire traveled out of them, causing the villain to be boosted toward her like a rocket. He had used her own fire against her!
He swung a fist out to her, but she jumped into the air and blasted out a wave of fire from her feet the same way she had seen Demonica do, allowing her to get high above him. She didn’t have enough control or strength to hover or fly, so she began to quickly fall, but it allowed her to get some distance. As she fell, she spun in the air and held her hands above her head, creating a large fireball. The same kind of one she used to take down Saw Head.
With a scream, she chucked it down as hard as she could, throwing it out as if it were a massive beach volleyball. When she first met Mr. Larison, the man had been strong enough to beat Intake. He had simply blasted Intake through several buildings with one attack. This Intake was stronger, but that was beside the point. She needed more power.
Intake glared up at the ball of fire and managed to give a grin as it rammed down into him. The entire building shook, and Red Ape screamed in fear as his bubble struggled to stay up. The floor exploded, causing him, White Spider, and White Lamb to fall back into the building, all three of them holding onto each other. They were on one floor above where Paragon and Mars King were now.
Intake was rammed through the roof by the ball of fire, which didn’t explode this time due to how badly it would have blown the building up. Instead, the fire simply flickered out and faded away. It had done its job, though. Intake gasped and gurgled left as a mostly melted puddle. Twisted limbs came out of him, and his face contorted into rage as she came crashing down and landed flat on her butt in a rough landing.
“Ow.” She winced. “I really need to work on that.”
“Intake, you useless idiot! Get the hell up!” Red Ape screamed. “My bubble won’t hold for much longer! Oh, why couldn’t I have brought Toni here? That kangaroo would be doing a better job than you, you useless villain!”
She spun around and jumped toward Red Ape, causing the three Zoo members to all scream in terror as she went to throw out a punch toward them. Before her fist could reach though, Intake’s arm extended out, absorbing all the stone and turning rocky. It grew, getting so long it was able to reach across the room and grab onto the bit of her hair that came out of the bottom of her helmet.
She hissed in pain as she was yanked back, and the upper half of Intake’s body reformed, growing out of the puddle. It rammed a fist made of metal and stone into her gut, and she gasped out, feeling pain. He was able to hit her hard enough to go through her enhanced durability. In fact, he was still stronger than her physically.
She forced her mouth open and fired a quick beam of flame directly into his face, causing his hand to let go of her. Intake stumbled back as his lower half finished reforming, and the leg twisted into a large sword, which he kicked out with trying to slice her in two. She jumped up, going over the blade, and went up high enough to grab onto whatever was left of the roof, swinging off of it. Fire coated both her arms, and she brought them down with her weight as she dropped, ramming them into Intake’s head.
The villain was knocked down from the force of her blow but struck back out at her with both his arms ramming them into her chest. She was shoved back and rolled across the ground, groaning a bit in pain. His hits seriously hurt, but she could at least take them. The real annoying thing was the man’s regen. Like Demonica or Green Wolf, it’d take a serious attack to down the monster.
At the moment, though, they were at least evenly matched-
She screamed in sudden pain as a red beam of energy smashed into her back, causing her to fall to the floor. Her back smoked, and she grabbed at it, shooting a glare at Red Ape, who had switched off his bubble when he saw his chance. Before she could even think of shooting her fire at him, White Lamb spoke into her megaphone.
“Beat her ass, Intake.” The sound wave the girl controlled only smashed into her, and she screamed as she was lifted off of her feet and sent flying directly into the fist of Intake, who was winding up for a powerful punch. Her whole world exploded and went white for a moment as the strike rammed into her face.
She hit the ground hard enough to shake the entire floor, and for a moment all the villains grabbed onto something, expecting to fall once more, but the ground held strong. It wouldn’t be that way for long though, as Intake brought his fist down again, ramming it into her gut. Jagged spikes grew out of his flesh, and he began to laugh as he brutally beat her down, tearing into her gut and causing her to scream out in pain.
She felt tears in her eyes but tried to fight through the pain, holding her hands up and charging them with fire. She never got to launch her attack though, as Intake grabbed onto both her hands and squeezed down on them hard enough to shatter the bone. She cried out again, letting out a sob as she felt her hands basically explode.
This was just like Myth had said. She was alone. No teammates or anything, fighting four villains. It didn’t matter if she was evenly matched with Intake, the others weren’t going to give her the chance to beat their heavy hitter.
In a panic, she opened her mouth, charging up her fire, but she realized too late that Intake had been waiting for it. The man’s palm slammed down over her face, forcing her mouth to close right as her beam fired. Her head was rammed down into the floor hard enough to crack it, and she could feel a wet spot flooding her helmet. Her fire burned through her mouth, and even with all the flame resistance she had, it was still a horrible pain, scorching her tongue and teeth as it was unable to escape.
She let out another sob, crying out as he let go of her and smashed his foot into her gut, kicking her away. Before she even had a chance of trying to move, a sound wave rammed into her as White Lamb attacked her. Her pained sobs cut out, no noise escaping her as the cruel villain used their power to silence her. She couldn’t scream for help now, even if she wanted to.
“Not laughing now, are you?” Intake taunted. The villain slowly walked over to her and kicked her downed body a few more times in her gut. She screamed out, but no noise was produced, causing the villain to laugh harder.
“This feels a bit much, doesn’t it?” Red Ape asked, wincing a bit. “I mean, she is a kid.”
“So what.” White Lamb rubbed her face from beneath her mask. “I took a sucker punch from that bitch. Not to mention you were almost burned alive, weren’t you? Do you really care?”
"Well, when you put it like that... Hit her harder, Intake!” Red Ape yelled.
“With pleasure.” She tried to crawl away, but the man wrapped an arm around her torso and forcefully picked her up. He was so big now he was able to hold her with one hand, and he squeezed down and pulled back, throwing her forward with everything he had. Her body rammed into the wall, and she went straight through it. She didn’t have a chance to escape though, as in an instant she reappeared back in the hallway in Intake’s grasp once more.
White Spider flicked her hair and sighed. “As fun as this is, watching some newbie hero get owned, we have a mission. Kill her.”
She felt more tears in her eyes as she was dropped to the ground. This wasn’t the first time she had been in a battle that could cost her life. Every villain fight she had been in had that chance. This was the first one where she was alone, though. All that joy was gone. That exciting spark she kept getting. It was replaced with pure fear. Terror clung to her. She was about to die.
No one was going to come save her in time. She was alone and about to die. She thought of her family and friends for a moment. Her mom, her dad, Armin, and Mr. Larison. What had been the last thing she said to them? She couldn’t recall. The day had started off so fun, but now...
Intake cracked his knuckles. “Well kid. I did tell you this would happen, didn’t I? It’s nothing personal, you know. I’m not doing this because I hate you or because I hold a grudge. No. I’m doing it because it feels good.” The monster grinned. “God does it feel great. To watch someone be filled with fear. To take your time crushing them to death and see as it dawns on them that they’re going to die. The horror, and then the acceptance. You fought a good fight. Maybe the heroes will learn their lesson and stop throwing kids at us. You said your name was Cinder, right?” The villain brought his leg up. “I think a better name would have been splatter.”
Before Intake could bring his foot down, a loud bird-like cry echoed out. From the roof, flying down at a fast speed, Destiny reached out toward her. She managed to crank her head up just in time as the bird reached her-
“None of that!” Intake’s fist rammed into the bird and smashed it into the ground next to her so hard it nearly exploded.
“N- No!” She screamed out in horror. White Lamb had apparently allowed her sound to come back. Destiny was still alive somehow, but the bird wasn’t in good condition. It let out a weak gasp. Its wings were twisted, and it looked almost deflated, resting in a pool of its own blood. She knew how important this bird was to Paragon. It was the girl’s eyes. This entire situation felt like one never-ending nightmare.
Intake let out a snort and cocked his head to the side. “Did you really think I’d let that bird heal you? I’m not stupid, you know. Mars King told me what a pain in the ass that thing was when he fought the Sub Enforcers.” The villain lifted his foot up and brought it down on the bird. “I’m taking this thing out!”
She threw herself above Destiny and let out a yell of pain as Intake’s foot smashed down into her back. The villain didn’t seem to care and decided he’d just squish them both as he shoved down with everything he had. She gritted her teeth, using her elbows and knees to support herself as she tried to fight against the power. It was like trying to stop a mountain, though.
She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling herself be shoved further down. She was barely above Destiny now, about to crush the bird with her own body. Her worst nightmare was going to happen. Her mother was going to discover she was a superhero through her corpse.
“M- Mr. Larison,” she cried out. “Myth, anyone! Please!”
“No sound can escape this hallway.” White Lamb taunted from the sidelines. “We could set off a nuke in here, and they’d only figure it out once the blast hit them! You’re all alone. Not even that Paragon girl can hear you scream.”
She whimpered, feeling her legs and arms begin to break. The pain in them growing worse and worse. They were about to shatter. “I- I don’t want to die.” She whimpered out.
‘You don’t want to die? Of course you don’t. Most people don’t want to die. I guess I should help you out though. After all, you’re a very, very special girl, Hope Lauren.’
Unknown to all of them, within a small little storage locker, a metal pod began to glow with a bright blue light. Meanwhile, at the mall, three people all suddenly froze. And for just a moment, the Lord of the Sky, the Lord of the Sea, and the Lord of the Land all found themselves staring in the direction of the hospital…
“Time to die.” Intake growled. “It’s over-” The man suddenly stopped and winced when he felt something. The hero, whom he had been easily pushing down on, began to push back. With more and more power, Cinder was standing back up. “W- What the hell is this! You should be out of strength! Where are you getting this power?” The villain demanded.
She ignored his screaming and began to yell as she felt the burning sensation start to heat up inside of her body. It swirled around inside of her, growing more and more chaotic. For a moment her eyes began to glow with a fiery red light, and the straps of her helmet burned away as fire poured down her chin. As her helmet fell, it revealed a wave of orangish hair, bathed in golden fire.
Her yelling grew as she shoved Intake off of her and rammed her arm up. Her broken hand smashed into his stomach, hitting him harder than she ever had before. Intake screamed, feeling a terrible burning sensation shoot through him, but it didn’t end there. Her arm kept going up, and fire began to blast out of the bottom of her elbow. Just like Demonica had done, she was turning her limb into a rocket.
She rammed him down into the floor, fire spraying out of her limb, and she ran forward with speeds that rivaled Mr. Larison’s, dragging Intake along. She reached the wall and punched out using the last of her strength and easily blasted the bad guy right through it, blowing his arms and legs off of him.
Intake was sent flying out of the hospital and flew across the lot, moving so fast and hard he shattered the barriers that blocked off sound and the ones that caused teleportation. The villain was sent halfway across the city, vanishing out of sight.
Red Ape, White Lamb, and White Spider all collapsed back into a sitting position and stared at her. Her hair was the color of fire, and a stream of flame dripped out of her eyes and mouth. Steam and smoke rose off of her body, and her costume was burning up as she turned to glare at them.
With shaking hands, Red Ape flicked his bubble back on.
She took a step forward, her eyes blasting out a laser beam that nearly shattered the bubble in an instant. “Yeah, fuck this.” White Spider yelled. “Get us the hell out of here! Warp us home!”
The bubble shattered and her beams blasted out, but in a loud ‘popping’ sound, the trio vanished, leaving her alone in the hallway. Her eyes stung, and the lasers went out, and she stumbled forward. Slowly her hair and eyes switched back, and she collapsed face first into the ground, spitting up blood.
Her vision began to blur, and she felt herself falling unconscious, but she forced her body to move, dragging it over toward the downed Destiny and wrapping her arms around him. “I- I have to get you to Sky.”
She slumped down, nearly vomiting, as the building began to fall apart around her. Her eyes snapped shut, and she collapsed forward, unconscious.
‘So. How’d you like a taste of that, kid? Eh? Kid? What. Going to ignore me? How rude. And after I let you borrow my power. You should be grateful. After all, that’s the same power the hero known as Full Monarch used to defeat the Emperor-’
“Hey.” A new voice said quietly. “Are you okay, little girl?”
Her eyes suddenly flickered open, and she stared up at the face of a goddess. A woman with long golden hair and eyes that looked like stars. She had woken up in the arms of the Victorian.