In the middle of London’s public square, stood Painender. Its towering, twitching, and alien form was illuminated by the wall of fire behind it, immersing it in a terrifying shadow. The chrome skin reflected the orange light, while the rusted hair accentuated it. If its appearance wasn't nightmarish enough, its voice was something that anyone would pray to forget. While it didn't speak words, a banshee-like shrill came screaming out of what could vaguely be considered a mouth. It sounded like screams of metal scraping against metal, mixed with the revving of a rusted engine.

However, the most terrifying part of this monster was that it was still Fang. As ungodly as it looked, there was something unnervingly human about it. The mental waves that came barreling out of it were crazed, to say the least, but they still felt somewhat alive. It was like a human’s voice was being drowned out in a sea of static noise. And that voice was the desperate cry of Fang Nola.

Now, Vincent Huron and Platinum John stood in defiance of this being, side by side. There was a resolute, albeit hesitant energy coming from John, while Vincent was all sorts of confused. That being said, Vincent was not scared.

“What is that? Is that Fang?” Vincent asked John.

Without breaking eye contact with Painender, John replied, “It is. My sibling is an Awakened Resonator and this is their apparition.”

“Awakened?”

John began to resonate more. “I don’t have to explain it all, but a Resonator awakens when their power and them become one. For Apparators, you literally merge with your apparition when you fully give into the “words” and summon it.”

Vincent gave them a look but got the gist of what they were saying. “So if it’s still an apparition, all we gotta do is just knock ‘em out, right? Easy.”

“I—” John paused. They couldn't help but smile at Vincent’s confident and strangely relaxed demeanor. “I guess so, yeah.”

“Then let’s do this,” Vincent said, resonating. He lowered himself into a colder state, letting his mind empty and his body chill. A bit of frost escaped his mouth as he exhaled.

Without any wasted movement, he used godspeed, surrounding himself in a void. The force of being ejected out of it caused the gap between him and Painender to almost instantly vanish. Just as he got into range, he reeled back his arm and prepared a flying starbreaker.

Even though Painender had no eyes, their blank-slate face snapped in Vincent's direction. There was no time for him to react—he had to just follow through on what he was doing.

How did you… he thought.

He unleashed the starbreaker, punching at Painender and creating a void at the end of that fist. If he could connect, it would surely do some damage. Once the attack was finished, he dispersed the void and found that there was nothing behind the black sphere.

Where did you…

But before he could even finish that thought, he sensed the massive force of mental energy appear behind him. As he turned to see what he unfortunately expected, he saw Painender standing there, towering over him. He was completely enveloped in its shadow. With one erratic movement, almost like its metallic muscles spasmed, it raised one of the Electronic Eyes on its arm at Vincent. It was too quick for even him to do anything. He could barely even perceive this speed.

“Shit.”

A massive vibration exploded out, blasting him back dozens of feet. He skipped along the paved ground, his skin getting burnt and cut. At least a half-dozen bones broke as he collided against the wall of one of the surrounding buildings. If it wasn't for his mental waves forcing his muscles to tense beyond the human limit, he would have surely died. It was a technique that Siegella had taught him not but a few days ago.

He righted himself up to his feet and prepared to face his foe. His resonance continued to thrum with his lackadaisical, yet empty vibe. The mental waves continued to heighten his senses and lower him into a colder place.

“Alright, where are you, ya bastard?” he said out loud.

As if answering his question, Painender let out another screech, piercing his ears. The sound itself was more than enough to disorient a person. Every decibel of that noise stabbed the inner workings of his ears, even scratching parts of his brain. It was pain.

Luckily for him, however, Painender seemed to remain where it was when it attacked him. It was at least a hundred or so feet away. That gave him at least a few seconds to think of a way to—

And then Painender stopped twitching. Then the next second it was right in front of Vincent. In the blink of an eye, it managed to clear that distance. Its speed was on a level unlike anything else.

“Wha…”

Just as another one of its Electronic Eyes began to vibrate, a burst of mental energy came soaring in from a different direction. The metallic menace snapped its head in that direction, with the rest of its body following suit a second later

“Vincent!” John shouted. “Stop resonating and run away! It can sense your mental waves!”

They then placed their hands against the ground, letting the mental energy that was coming out of their head flow down into their arms, coming to a stop at their hands. It was like watching a backed-up hose exponentially build pressure. The amount of control John had was unlike anything Vincent had ever seen, even compared to the greatest at Libra. They truly stood on a podium all to themselves.

Then all at once, John released the built-up mental waves, forcing them into the ground. “Platinum Shock,” they said as they caused a mini-earthquake to rock the entirety of the public square. The rumbling ground split as the violence continued, causing multiple ravines to spiderweb out—one of which headed straight toward Painender.

The ground beneath the metal monster broke apart, rising and falling in different chunks. Even with its foothold’s elevation shattered, the Painender continued to keep its body faced solely in John’s direction. Seeing his opportunity, Vincent stopped resonating, allowing his body to warm up slightly, and took off in the opposite direction of John. While running, he never once let his eyes off of the creature that had his friend ensnared within it. He could tell that there was a semblance of Fang’s mind deep within there. He just had to find a way to reach them while John kept the being occupied.

John continued to resonate more and more, their mental waves flowing like the most graceful of waterfalls out of them. Those ripple-like waves cascaded down from their mind and to the bottom of their feet, and then they would wrap themselves back toward the top of his head. It was a cycle of preservation and control.

They stood up and began to saunter up to Painender, even with the rumbling of the public square continuing. The force of the shockwave was waning, but it was still present. Still, they didn't seem to have any trouble keeping balance or navigating through the shaking world. As they split the difference between them and Painender in half, the steel behemoth let out another shrill as its body began to violently shake, causing its image to almost blur.

In response, John gathered all their mental waves and focused them around their head before firing them like bullets straight at Painender. “Platinum Barrage!” John yelled out. The waves gathered and attacked a focal point around the beast’s head before exploding out into a radius around it. It was such a precise assault.

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Painender reached up and clawed at its head as it let out a bone-chilling scream that shattered any nearby windows. However, unlike its other screams, this one had something buried beneath it. It took Vincent a second of focused listening, but he heard a voice creep through. “Help,” the voice said. “Help.” It was Fang! This realization caused Vincent’s blood to boil. His friend was suffering. His friend was in pain. And he couldn't even beat the thing that was causing it. This creature didn't end pain, it only brought it.

After a few seconds of struggling against John’s attack, the monster slammed its foot against the ground and unleashed an enormous bust of mental waves. The blast exploded out of it, decimating the ground around it and even cracking the walls of the surrounding buildings. The wall of fire that encaged the group even flickered from the force of the blast for a moment before reforming.

Like a jackhammer, Vincent felt his brain rattled with pain. His nose and ears began to bleed and he struggled to even stay conscious. Because he had stopped resonating, he lost any protection he had against mental assaults. It was like being naked in a blizzard, and luckily he managed to will himself alive this time. Who knows if he could survive another one?

Looking up, he saw that even John has a trickle of blood coming out of their nose. It seemed like even they were not prepared to deal with such a violent attack.

Damn, this shit is gettin’ kinda desperate, he thought. I guess it’s now or never.

Vincent began to resonate again, immediately causing Painender’s attention to snap over to him. He took a few steps forward before he heard John yell out “NO!” but he didn't care. He wasn’t going to let this thing take control of his friend any longer.

After taking a few steps and lowering himself even further, his body started to shiver and parts of his skin started to have a slight tint of purple to them. Without a second to spare, he cracked his neck and used godspeed to get right up next to Painender. And once again, he reeled his arm back and prepared to launch another starbreaker. And just like before, Painender disappeared.

However, he expected this. If there was one thing Vincent was good at, it was learning from his mistakes. Before he got hit with another Electronic Eye, he used godspeed again to launch himself into the sky. As he hovered in the air for a second, waiting for gravity to take over, he watched the metal monster shift its head around. Just as it looked to the sky, Vincent exhaled some icy breath.

“I got another one in me,” he said as he used godspeed again, rocketing himself to the ground with reckless abandon.

Just as he got next to the unsuspecting Painender, he felt the unrestrained wave of mental energy that emanated out of it tear through him. There was a radius of insane pressure that continued to squeeze his brain. But he didn't care. He didn’t care what it cost. He didn’t care what it took. His friend was trapped inside a metal shell and he was going to break them out.

He slammed his body against Painender, cracking many of his ribs and denting the beast. His fist crashed into the monster and his starbreaker released. With one mighty push, he exerted his will onto Painender, enveloping it in a void, and forcing it to the ground.

Vincent stood above the twitching beast as it lie on its back. Its shriek sputtered out of its body like a mistimed piston. “H..He..Help,” it said underneath its scraping voice. However, it could not get itself up from its sunken-in position.

Cracking his knuckles, he said, “Don’t worry, Fang, I’ll get ya outta there.”

Just as he readied another starbreaker, John walked up next to him. They had a limp in their step and their breath was staggered and heavy. “That’s enough, Vincent, I’ll take it from here,” they said.

Kneeling down, they placed their resonating hand on Painender’s spasming head. All of their mental waves gathered in that one spot. “Platinum End,” they said, sending firing all of that mental force into the brain of Painender.

Every part of the metal giant twitched at the same time before coming to rest. It finally stopped moving. After a few seconds, its form began to shrink and its metallic feature returned to a more humanoid state. Fang was back and unconscious.

“Now what do we...” Vincent started to say before shutting up. He sensed two other presences near him that he didn't sense before. Or perhaps they were there, but the sheer weight of Painender’s waves drowned out those presences. Regardless, he sensed them now.

Both he and John faced the direction of an alleyway near them where two figures emerged from the shadows. Both of them had their hands up and a smile on their faces. As ashamed as he would be to admit it, Vincent didn’t recognize them at first. But as their forms fully emerged from the alley, Vincent’s eyes went wide.

“Hello, Vincent,” Zander said, walking out of the alley.

“Hey, Vince,” Eliot added.

***

“Damn, you’re tougher than I thought,” Siegella huffed, pulling an icicle out of her shoulder. The giant wall of fire that split the public square made her feel as though she was an animal trapped in a cage, and her captors were right in front of her.

With some blood trickling out of his nose and mouth, standing a few dozen feet away from her, was Copperhead Zak. One hand of his was glowing bright red while the other was purple and had some shards of ice sticking to it.

“Oh yeah?” he replied. “Well, I didn’t think you were that good at projection.”

“I’m just getting started,” she said, cracking her neck.

With a sly smile, Zak reached down and placed his frozen hand into a pool of his own blood that was beneath him. “Same here.” Flicking the blood in her direction, he used his Resonator ability to cool it down. As the splatters of blood traveled closer to her, they froze into spears of red ice.

Siegella brought her hands up in a defensive stance, punching at each of the oncoming threats. One after another, she danced around and shattered the projectiles with her fists. After the barrage was over, she stared deep into Zak’s eyes and began to resonate. Without hesitation, he used projection and exerted her resonating will out of her mind and into the world, aimed directly at the Aries foe.

As the mental waves hit Zak, he keeled over and spit up a mouthful of blood. His rigid composure wobbled and became uneasy. He managed to continue his concentration on Siegella, but his fiery hand started to dim.

Only a few seconds into her mental assault, she heard the nightmarish roar of the Terragong. It sent a chill down her spine and she lost concentration on her projection. Quickly, she glanced over and saw that the giant beast was still rampaging near the perimeter of buildings. It was still in the process of fighting with Al and Vito, who were hopping from one building to another, firing their rifles at it when they could. However, it was a delicate game, because if either one of them waited too long, the Terragong would smash the building they were standing on.

Bringing her attention back to her immediate fight, she watched Zak stagger to a standing position. His red hand began to heat up once more and his purple remained surrounded by frost and ice.

“Is this really what you want?” Siegella asked. “Taking the lives of all these innocent people for your own gain?”

Zak spit out some blood and chuckled. “That’s rich coming from you. But it doesn't matter anymore what we want. The only thing that I care about right now is killing all of you Libra bastards. Maybe then this city will finally know peace.”

Siegella winced. “Those are some big words coming from someone who is so weak,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Look at you, you’re staggering and covered in blood. Your body must be a wreck and I know your mind is spinning from my mental waves. The most you did to me was put a small hole in my shoulder. I’m sure you know who’s winning right now.”

“Shut it!” Zak yelled, charging right toward Seigella.

His burning hand reached out at her, but she easily moved to the side after reading his mental waves’ intentions with prediction. He had lost all form of control and was operating on pure, unfiltered emotion.

She swung him around and slammed his back against the ground. Without any wasted movement, she sat down on top of him, pinning his arms to the ground. She then began to resonate more and more and more. Her mind began to give in to her three words—loss, sadness, abandoned—and she charged up for a lethal dose of mental waves.

Just before she unleashed her attack, she felt a hand gently place itself on her shoulder. She was shocked. She didn't sense anyone else’s presence. Who could possibly—

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” a soft, manly voice said to her.

Slowly, she turned her head to see who said that. And as she did, her eyes widened and a slight sliver of fear washed over her mind. Standing over her, looking down with the softest, angriest eyes possible was Silo Custoro.

“This won’t do,” Silo said, calmly. “I can’t allow you to hurt any of my family ever again.”