One week earlier...
The ball went back and forth.
"How is the house suiting you? I know I tried to make it match how it used to look." Jack asked, pulling his arm back and tossing the ball as hard as he could.
Hope raised her hand and caught the baseball. Mr. Larison hadn't held back in the throw, and she had to press her heels into the floor to stop herself from being flung back. They had only just started, and already the ball was covered in scratches, and part of it was peeling off from how intensely they threw it.
"It's fine, I guess." She shrugged. He had been referring to the incident with Polaron. The villain had shown up and destroyed most of her home, and it had been Mr. Larison who fixed it. She looked down at the ball, and her fingers dug tightly into it. She pulled her hand back and threw it right back at him as hard as she could. "I don't want to talk about that, though! Why are we doing this exactly?"
They were on the roof of Pantheon's base. The others were away when Mr. Larison got the idea. He practically dragged her up with him after buying a new baseball. Because they were out of sight, he didn't bother hiding his powers. He held his hand up, and his golden light shimmered out and formed a web that caught the ball. The force of it still managed to push him back a few inches, though.
"What do you want to talk about, then?" Jack asked. His golden threading wrapped itself around the ball and began to move on its own, spinning it so fast that part of it caught fire. Then, all at once, the webbing vanished, and the baseball was launched like a rocket directly at her.
"I don't know what I want to talk about!" She said, frustrated. She slammed her hand out and used the thing she had learned from Wyvern to absorb the fire on the ball, putting it out and slowing it down, allowing her to easily catch it. Her 'training session,' the one that ended with the Victorian appearing, had happened just two days ago. "I don't know what I want to talk about or what I want to do. I- I just really don't get it." She looked back down at the ball in her hand and thought about crushing it, but instead, she lazily tossed it to Mr. Larison, not bothering to use any powers. "I just don't know what to do."
Jack didn't even need to use any powers to catch it this time. He held the ball and ran his fingers over the damage. "Do you remember what I first told you the day you decided to be a hero?"
"I know what you said. I- I just never thought someone like Wish would ever appear. She was like the Emperor, wasn't she... A Lord of Life who used their power for evil. Despite being as old as I am, she somehow beat me, crippled Money Tree for life, and might have killed Wasp Nest. It wasn't supposed to go like this. I was supposed to find the Lord of Life and save my dad! Why didn't anyone tell me the Lord of Life would be evil? Why didn't you tell me any of this? What am I supposed to think, Mr. Larison? I want to trust you, but this is... I just don't know what is happening anymore."
Jack listened to her rambling before he nodded his head. "There was a game that involved a baseball I saw once. A lot of kids would play it with their parents where I grew up. When a child had a question and the adult had the answer, they would use a ball to keep track of who was allowed to speak. When the adult tossed the ball to the child, the child was allowed to ask a question. When the child tossed the ball to the adult, the adult was allowed to answer the question or ask a question of their own. The child could then answer the question or ask their own as well. It was due to this ruling that some questions would be deemed inappropriate, not ready to be answered, and skipped. I always thought the concept was nice. The world would be a lot better if we all took turns answering each other's questions or asking someone a question of our own, don't you think?"
"Huh-" She barely had time to catch the ball that he threw. "Whoa! Were you aiming for my face!" She tossed it back at him just as hard.
Jack waited for the ball to reach him before he caught it. "Yes."
He tossed it back at her, and her eye twitched. "Do you think this is funny or something?"
"Yes." He answered back once he had the ball again.
She caught it once more, making it her turn again. She sighed and looked down at it, feeling her nerves calm down a bit. It was strangely soothing in a way. She never tossed a ball back and forth with her father, but she knew some kids would. Her dad was always the kind of guy who would take her to the library instead. A lot had happened recently. She had time traveled, found out she was a Lord, discovered she had a connection with the man she hated most in life, discovered that the Lord of Life was the girl she hated most in life, trained under Wyvern and Boy Genius for a single night, met the Victorian, and got rejected by the Victorian. It was almost calming in a way to not be dealing with any of it and just stand up on the roof, throwing the ball back and forth.
"Did you do this with your dad?" She finally asked, tossing the ball back toward him.
Jack didn't answer right away this time. When he caught the ball, he stared down at it in silence for several seconds. "No... My dad and I didn't really get along. I ended up running away from home around the time I turned twelve, after my mom died. My folks were just regular humans. Had no powers. They weren't really good people, either. I guess it was around that time that I was adopted by my second dad. If I'm being honest, he wasn't any better and was always too busy to do something like this." He chucked the ball back at her with an underhand throw.
"I didn't know you were adopted!" she said, catching the ball. "What else don't I know about you, Mr. Larison?"
"I dunno?" He shrugged as he caught the ball. "I used to be married." He shrugged.
"You said you used to be married at one point, right? What was that like?" She had a hard time believing he could tolerate a person long enough to get engaged. Sometimes she wondered how he put up with that Nick guy, his roommate.
Jack lazily shrugged as he tossed the ball up and down to himself for a bit. "I was a fresh adult once with no idea how the world truly worked. She randomly asked me out of the blue if I wanted to get married one day, and I figured I had nothing to lose. That would have been about fifteen years ago during the Emperor's reign, so I guess I thought living life in the fast lane was cool. We never even went on a single date. Just got married on the spot and got a random pastor to make us official. Don't even got a ring or anything like that."
"Why did you never mention this person?"
For a moment, he thought back to what Avalon had forced him to see: that calming beach with its waves, a child that never existed, a timeline that never was, the place where 'she' rested waiting for him, the place he would someday end up at. "I don't like talking about it."
Hope closed her mouth as she stared at Mr. Larison. It was pretty clear what that meant—the state of this woman she had never heard of. Mr. Larison 'had' been married.
The red-haired man shook his head and tossed the ball back into the air. His leg came up, and he kicked it toward her. She decided to try and style it as well and clapped both her hands around the ball, using only her middle finger to catch it between her hands and stop it. "If you don't mind me asking, back when you saved me from Wish, you told me what your name was. Do you remember?" The man nodded. "You said that your name was Alpha. That's kind of a weird name, isn't it? What's up with that?" She took a deep breath and blew as hard as she could, shooting a small current of air into the ball and firing it out between her fingers like a makeshift railgun.
Jack snorted as he processed her question and casually caught the ball. He gripped it and hummed. "That's kind of a loaded question. I guess I'll need to really break it down into who Alpha is and who I am, won't I? Alpha wasn't precisely my name. It was more of a code name, I guess. Like how Wish is called Wish or Sky is called Paragon. A Super name. It was given to me by the Emperor."
"Whoa! Seriously? I knew you had a connection to him, but it was like that!"
"Yeah." Jack nodded, looking down at the ball he held. "It was him. I don't really remember the name my parents gave me. The Emperor started his army. Turned people into monsters. Most people lose themselves and forget who they used to be. I guess I'm no exception. A lot of my previous life was blurry at best. All the monsters needed new names and would turn to the Princess of Life. She was a child of a previous Lord of Life and the wife of the Emperor."
"The one that died and was brought back as something else, right..."
"Yeah. That one. I was never given a name by her, though. The Emperor gave me a name. I was sort of one of the first people put onto the project, in a way. Alpha testing is what you do before beta testing. So, I was Alpha, the first of his experiments." He glanced back down at the ball and sighed. "I met Nier before I met the Emperor."
"You make it sound like they're different people."
"To those who met the man, you'd think so as well. It wasn't until the Beast appeared on Earth for the first time and wiped out everything Nier had that the man collapsed and turned to darkness. Maybe he could have still been saved, but no one ever reached for him. I guess the abyss swallowed him whole. I can still remember the day I first met him. It's blurry, but I remember it as clear as day."
He didn't know how long it had been by now—twenty years, or maybe even thirty. It had been a city that was no longer on the map, turned to dust during the great attack. The weather was terrible—maybe hail or rain. It was all so blurry. What he did recall, though, was the name.
Heavy bags rested under Nier's eyes. The man's shoulders were slumped, and his clothes were soaked down to the bone. The Lord stared past the glass of a store selling various different TVs. They were all on and played the same thing.
"-the newest sidekick of the number one Hero has made her appearance! The one and only Ruby Admiral!" The image on the TV showed Full Monarch saving a city that was burning to the ground. Joining him in the air was a young child who flew alongside him and helped save the day with a smile on her face. Dressed in her red costume. The girl that would one day take up the mantle of the Victorian.
Nier's eyes were hollow and sunken as he stared at the screen in complete silence. "So instead of trying to permanently stop the Beast, this is what you've decided to do, Jackson. I see where your priorities lie."
From a nearby alleyway, Nier heard the sound of a can being kicked. He turned his head and raised an eyebrow when he saw someone standing in front of him. The boy was dressed in baggy clothes and had shaggy red hair. He was shivering from the cold, but there was a look in his eyes. The same look Nier had seen in dozens of soldiers during the war with Lucifer so many years ago. People died so someone like this kid could live.
One of the child's arms was wrapped under the body of a small puppy. The animal was barking and growling as it glared at Nier. In the child's other hand, he clutched an old, rusted switchblade. "E—Everything in your pockets," the child announced, and his stomach growled loudly. "Your wallet and everything. Now!"
A large snort escaped Nier before the man totally lost it. He threw his head back and laughed, causing the child to step away.
"I- I'm serious-"
Nier crouched down and allowed the blade to stab into his chest. He ignored the gasps of the child or the puppy, which began to bite at his hand as he got too close. He grabbed the boy by his chin and stared into his eyes. "That's a good look in your eyes. What's your name?"
"I—I don't know." The boy grunted out and tried to thrash around, but Nier's strength easily overpowered the child.
"Well, Mr. No name. I'm really delighted I ran into you. Maybe this is fate. Nah. Nothing so cheap. Still..." Nier smiled as he stared at his reflection in the child's eyes. He really did look so tired. "How would you like to help me save the world?"
Jack shook his head as the blurry memory faded away. He quietly tossed the ball back and forth with Hope and rubbed his chin. "And the rest was history, I guess. I was adopted by Nier and soon after became the son of the Emperor once he finally snapped and went insane. After it all ended, I was given the name Jack by the number one hero. It's kind of funny, in a way. I can't honestly remember the name my mother gave me, yet the names given by the number one villain and number one hero seem to have stuck with me. Some nights, I wonder if maybe I could have stopped him myself. It keeps me up sometimes."
"You were just a kid." Hope shook her head as she caught the ball he threw at her. "What did he mean by save the world, though?"
Jack caught the ball and sighed once again. "Again. You need to remember that Nier wasn't born evil. In a way, it was this world that changed him. He didn't instantly snap when the Beast first came. There was a point where he made an effort to keep a hold of his sanity. He had a goal in mind. The Beast. It always targets areas that hold the most humans. It tends to ignore Supers unless they get in the way of its rampage. Nier's goal was simple. Create a world of only Supers. Perfect Supers that could either evolve to the point of taking the Beast out or simply by existing would cause the Beast to avoid them. It wasn't until he discovered his process of manufacturing Supers tends to drive them insane and mess with their heads that he truly became a villain. I guess that was the straw that finally broke him. Even I have some moments where I think I lost my mind."
'You tell her.' The voice of Full Monarch just behind his ear caused Jack to let out yet another sigh.
Hope frowned and caught the ball that Jack tossed at her. "I think I'm starting to get it. You were turned back into a human by Full Monarch during the final battle, right? At least that's the story that you told the others."
Jack caught the fastball special she threw at him with ease and toyed around with it in his hands. "The Emperor turned most people into monsters without a care in the world. He would place some of his cells into their bodies and let them go wild. If they were a human, then they would be turned into a Super. Most either exploded or turned into mindless beasts. A few, though, ended up like that Kevin kid. Keeping most of their sanity and becoming a brand-new Super. Most of the Supers he tried to change into monsters went insane. Only Fairy Queen and Golden God were able to keep most of their minds. The others became the giant monsters that roam around the Wasteland today. A lot of the monsters called themselves his sons or daughters. However, the Emperor only ever considered a few of his best creations worthy of that title. Hell Hound was one. She had been the corpse of his first daughter, who died. Sky was another. Grown from nothing; they weren't like me or the others. They never had a life of their own before they were invented. One was meant to be a backup. A way for the Emperor's legacy to live on if something ever happened to him or the Princess of Life. Then you have me."
"I'm guessing you were one of those people given the title of his child?"
"That's what they called it. What I really was, though, was a weapon. The Emperor knew that his biggest obstacle was the child he raised all those years ago. If he wanted to win the war, he would need to get rid of Full Monarch—the only Super who could defeat the Beast all by himself. That's where I came in. A random street urchin became the solution."
"Full Monarch died fifteen years ago... Mr. Larison, were you..."
"After the battle, I watched the life fade from his eyes. The number-one hero was dead. I almost couldn't believe it. Of course, by then, the Emperor was also long gone. Maybe he died, or maybe he escaped. Not even I know. I was attacked from behind. A shard of metal rammed right through me. I would have been a dead man if not for Nick. Of course, the shard still won in the end. Poisoned my heart—a sliver of light with the express order to bring death on me. Anytime I try to use the energy my body naturally creates, it grows worse. It also stops the damage to my heart from being healed, and if pushed too far, I could blow up. I guess there is some silver lining, though. I absorb different forms of energy, and this light is no exception."
"You're a changed person now," Hope said, shaking her head. "We could tell the Victorian or something, and maybe she can take back the order and fix your heart?"
Mr. Larison just shook his head. "Hatred that deep isn't something that can be fixed with a few good actions and words. I'm alive and have fought through it, so it doesn't really matter too much in the grand scheme of things." He tossed the ball back to her, giving her a sly smirk. "I think the only reason I'm actually alive is due to her cocky nature. She's the kind of woman who would refuse to even entertain the possibility of me being alive. She'll do everything to convince herself that it isn't her power. That would mean admitting how badly she failed. In a way, she's like myself. I'd also hate to lose."
Hope frowned as she clutched the ball he threw at her. "Is there any way we could fix it?"
"Maybe the Lord of Life could."
Her heart sank at that. It all came back to her failure. Her fingers dug into the surface of the ball, leaving dents on it. She'd just need to get stronger. A lot stronger.
"You okay?"
"Huh?" She looked up when she heard Mr. Larison speak. She nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm fine." She tossed the ball back at him. It went back and forth a few more times as the two of them silently played.
It was nice.
***
Present Day...
He wasn't really sure why that memory went through his mind at that moment. Maybe because, at that moment, he felt like the ball.
Battery hit the ground so hard that he bounced into the air, where he would then slam back down into the sand, only to bounce back up. He kept getting further and further away from the others, struggling to stop. Everything about the situation was wrong. Reality had changed and twisted to paint its own story.
With a simple wave of her hand, Fairy Queen changed his friction and the properties of the ground, causing it to bend like a trampoline.
Beams of golden light fired out of Battery's fingertips, forming into large hooks that stabbed into the ground. He came to a sliding stop and nearly broke both his arms as the threading pulled to its max. He breathed heavily as he felt reality settle around him, and everything went back to normal.
'Think you can beat her?' The voice asked him.
"You shut up. I'm not in the mood to look crazy in front of her."
Fairy Queen stood before him, walking slowly. Her skin was pale, and she always insisted on wearing very little clothing—just a few simple branches and plants covering her modest areas. She might have looked pretty if not for the look on her face—one of rage and disgust.
"I honestly had been praying you died all those years ago." The woman hummed. "Then again, cockroaches are always good at escaping death."
"That's a little harsh..."
Fairy Queen looked him up and down. "I always knew you were a traitor. You turned on your own master and bit the hand that fed you. Instead of doing your job like a good pet, you helped Full Monarch defeat the Emperor. Still, I never thought you would fall so low as to join the society that broke the world. Heroes are the reason the Beast still exists. They are the reason this planet is dying. They are the reason he lost his family. The reason we had to be made! You're not just some traitorous runt; you're an enemy who's spitting in the face of everything he believed in!"
"And what did he believe in?" Battery wiped the blood from his nose and mouth and ignored the pain in his chest. Golden energy crackled off of him, and he slammed his hand out. His entire palm was used, not just a finger, as he unleashed a massive golden beam of energy that burned so hot it transformed the sand around them into molten glass. "As far as I'm concerned, he was just as bad as the Beast!"
Fairy Queen slapped the air, and reality twisted around her, the beam breaking like a river stream going around her form. She stalked forward, walking through the energy, and flicked her finger out. All at once, the energy died out as a small golf ball-sized hole was blasted through Battery's stomach.
Blood poured down the front of his chest, and he gasped but was forced to ignore the pain. He raised his arms up just in time to block a punch from the villain. His bones snapped and twisted as his limbs were turned the other way and shattered. She wasn't holding back. Every blow, every attack—all of it was at her maximum force. One of the few people in the world who was ever able to go a few rounds with Full Monarch.
Battery was shoved back from the force of the attack, with more blasts of reality smashing into him from all sides. His golden light grew stronger, reaching its peak, and his arms snapped back in place as he forcefully healed them. The energy began to charge up once more, and he skated forward across the ground, moving at his top speed. He was on Fairy Queen faster than she could react, and he rammed a fist directly into her face. His energy fired into her body, and he did his best to either fry her brain or at least damage her nervous system.
Neither worked. The woman took the punch directly to her face like it was nothing and rammed her fingers into Battery's stomach, impaling him on her hand. Blood poured down Battery's chin, and she forcefully raised him up and threw her arm out, tossing him away and sending out another blast of reality. It slammed into Battery, and his limbs began to twist and distort, his neck nearly snapping as he was almost folded in two.
His body struggled to heal and repair itself, snapping limbs back into place and plugging up holes, but it was quickly becoming a losing battle. As soon as his feet touched the ground once again, he held two of his fingers out and fired out his beams. The beams launched forward and separated into other beams, which then further separated. They wrapped Fairy Queen's body tightly, and he formed a lasso around her. He spun his body, dragging her with him, and threw her directly into one of the many rays of sunlight that stabbed down.
She was buried up to her waist in molten glass, and from above, fire poured down onto her as radiation bombed her cells. The golden lasso changed and formed a net of sorts over her, stopping her from flying out. She twitched her finger, and reality changed once again. Instead of molten glass, she now stood in cold water. A mirror appeared in the air above her and angled itself just right to bounce the harsh ray off of her and toward Battery.
Battery dodged out of the way just in time, and Fairy Queen used that as her chance to escape. Her wings fully unfolded, and she shattered the energy around her. Then she flew up and out of the death ray. "Do you really think you can beat me in the sorry state you're in? Besides Full Monarch's daughter, there isn't a Super alive who can match up to me now!"
Her main power was illusion. However, through the concept of inversion, it allowed her to twist and alter her abilities. She was second only to the Victorian when it came to this. Her power to alter reality was one of the strongest powers, not falling under those of the Lords. She could attack you by twisting space itself to collapse in on you or even change matter temporarily into another form and alter its natural rules. She couldn't affect people with her power, though. That was the trade-off. Whereas her illusions would target a person's mind, her inverted power could only target the world. That wasn't that bad, though. That just stopped her from transmuting someone into something else. She could still alter the space a person stood in and cause it to collapse in on itself, crushing her target.
"I really have lost most of my power." Battery hummed. "In this state, I'm only around the level of Myth or Green Wolf. Guys like you and Golden God are simply far beyond the level of your normal baddies. Even most members of the Enforcers would struggle or lose. I used to be a freak of nature, like Boy Genius or the Victorian. Guess time has been cruel to me, though."
"Aw. Is the poor little baby getting emotional?"
"Do you know why you're alive?" Battery asked.
"Huh?"
"After the battle with the Emperor, the Victorian went on a killing spree. She murdered almost every member of his army she could get her hands on. Only left a few of the kids alive, like your son, Polaron. Guys like Alien and the like, though, Demonica's and Mars King's parents, were fair game; she went out of her way to slaughter them. She even killed the Princess of Life."
"You're not one to speak. After all, your actions got Hell Hound killed!" Fairy Queen hissed out. "You brought death to us all and even killed your own lover."
Battery ignored her remark and kept talking. "It was always odd, though, how she left you alive, right?" He folded his arms, looking her up and down. "Golden God is alive because he got away. As soon as it looked like the Organization lost, he ran with his tail tucked in between his legs and fled to space. "But you... You were thrown into Nightshade. It makes me wonder. You've always been tough. Most Supers can't even get past your skin. Your durability was second only to Hell Hound or the Lords. The Victorian should be strong enough, though. Of course, like me, you can also heal. Repair your damaged body with wisps of reality. That was when it hit me." Battery looked down at his fist and clenched it slightly. "Nightshade exists to keep villains that are hard to keep dead locked up, or just as a means of throwing villains away without killing them. Most people don't truly understand how disturbing a place it really is. The Branch doesn't want it to come out that it's basically a death pit where villains either rot or die instantly. You're one of the ones that are hard to kill. So, it makes sense that you'd be thrown into the pit. Even so, what doesn't make sense is the fact that the Victorian would seemingly be fine with that. Unless she wasn't. When I hit you earlier, I didn't actually touch you, did I?"
"What are you trying to say?" Fairy Queen growled out.
"You've gone out of your way to stop yourself from taking any damage. Even minor attacks that wouldn't actually hurt you, you've blocked by forming a thin barrier of solid reality around your body, sort of like my own barrier. You're doing everything to avoid taking damage. On top of that, though, you're not over with Golden God. I found it odd how you didn't just go kill Wish yourself. Also, you didn't kill Ocean Empress or Poseidon. You tried, but the old you would have gotten the job done. The old you would have killed me in one attack. You guys went out of your way to heal Golden God and get him in working order, though. It's pretty obvious when you think about it-"
"Shut up!"
Battery ignored her and pointed directly at her heart. "The Victorian didn't just throw you in jail. Like me, you have a little present left behind. One that is blocking most of your power. You can't heal your body as well as you can, or else the shard will dig deeper. She couldn't kill you herself, so she left it behind. Your healing is better than mine, and you can heal most of the damage, but the pain is something you can't stop, right? Blinding agony that courses through you. Even if it won't kill you, it's enough to stop you from going all out for fear of it hitting you again. You're a wolf that's been leashed and tamed, the same as me-"
"I said shut up!"
"That's why you haven't done anything about your son, right? Polaron's death. You haven't even thought about it because you know you'll be filled with blinding rage and want to use your full power, but that pain has you shaking in your boots. I guess you were locked away, so you don't actually know who killed Polaron, do you?" Battery threw his arms out. "I killed Mars King and Polaron." He lied. "I'm going to finish what the Victorian started!"
"You're dead, you fucking traitor!"
Fairy Queen screamed out as loud as she could and threw her hands out. Reality broke and twisted, unleashing waves of destruction. Battery dodged past them with ease. They were massive in size but fired blindly out of rage. Even so, that still wasn't the woman's full power. She really was scared of feeling the biting pain of the shard in her heart and was forced to hold back. That was his win condition, though.
Battery was on her in a single moment as he weaved through broken reality. Space twisted and changed, and color distorted as he reached her. Her barrier was strong. It was too strong for him to break through. He didn't need to, though. He rammed his hand into her and focused all of his energy. It was the same as when Paragon was nearby. The shard wouldn't let its host heal the damaged heart.
Battery unleashed his energy as a wave of healing aura focused directly on the shard in her heart. Fairy Queen screamed out in pain as the healing took effect, and her chest began to glow. Battery rammed his hand forward and upped the power of his healing aura. Golden light seeped out of Fairy Queen's chest, bright enough to rival the sun, and her flesh began to burn and break as the shard began to eat away at her. It was the same thing inside of him. The same curse he had. She was just like him.
She tried to thrash out of his grasp, but he held onto her, golden chains wrapping around them both. He ignored the pain that coursed through him, and his scream matched hers as he pushed forward, ramming his hand through her and grabbing her heart. He used everything and, in a single instance, switched from healing to destruction. The shard in her chest was already breaking her to bits, and he just copied what it was doing, attacking the very atoms that made her up with his golden light.
Fairy Queen's screams died out, and her body broke away as Battery shoved his way through her. She began to change into golden dust. As he stepped past her, he breathed heavily and stared down at the small metal shard he held in his hand now. It hummed and burned—the same thing that was in his own heart. Fairy Queen was dead. Her body was reduced to less than ash.
He did it. He saved the day.
"Mr. Larison!" A voice cried out. He turned and saw Cinder quickly running toward him. She wasn't alone. She was dragging Paragon over with her, and behind the two girls were the other members of Pantheon. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'm fine- Wait, what about you? What happened with Wish?" Battery asked.
"We dealt with it." Myth called out. He walked forward and looked down at the shard that Battery held. "Is that it?"
"Yeah." Battery nodded. "Fairy Queen's dead."
Myth nodded. "We beat Golden God. Cinder was also able to stop Wish for good. It looks like you were worried for nothing." Myth held his hand out to Battery. "You did good."
Battery stared at the hand before silently taking it and shaking it. "Thanks..."
"What's with that pitiful thanks!" Whisper appeared next to him, suddenly leaning on his shoulder. "We couldn't have done it without you, Battery!"
"I wasn't even there at the battle, though?"
"Doesn't matter!" Snowdawn called out, pointing at Battery. "I just thought, what would Battery do? And in that moment, I figured out how to beat my bad guy! They never stood a chance."
"Just take the compliment," Paragon called out. Her arms were folded, and she stood next to Cinder, letting out a huff. "If it's anything like my sister, they won't stop until you take it," she said.
Battery stared at her quietly for a moment. "And Wish is... really gone?"
"Yeah." Paragon nodded. I don't sense her. I think she's gone for good." Paragon quietly looked down at the shard in his hands and took it suddenly. "This is the thing in your heart?" she asked, looking at it.
"Yeah- Wait, aren't you blind?"
"Now that I'm looking at it closer, it really isn't that strong. Maybe after beating Wish, I became stronger. My power feels different anyway. I think I could be the new Lord of Life even-"
"Really? If that were the case, you should be able to maybe heal my heart then." Battery shrugged. "I'd rather not try it without being certain. Luckily, there is a way we can try it."
"There is?" Snowdawn asked.
"My dad!" Cinder said with wide eyes. "If Paragon can heal him, then that means when we killed Wish, she became the next Lord of Life!"
"That's right, kid." Battery couldn't help the small smile that came onto his lips.
"And if she can heal him, she can heal you?" Cinder let out a relieved sigh. "So, then it's over, right? We actually won."
"Yeah, I think so. It's a little strange, but yeah, it's a happy ending." Battery stared at the girl in silence. She had a large smile on her face. For a moment, she almost reminded him of... The image of the sandy beach came back to him. His wife and a child that never existed. A timeline that could never be. "Oh, shit, this a-"
Blood splattered onto the ground as a hand rammed its way through his back and out of his gut. He practically vomited up blood and felt his eyes go wide. Pain coursed through, and everyone was gone. Team Pantheon wasn't here anymore, and the sounds of fighting in the distance picked back up. They hadn't actually finished their battles yet. Wish wasn't dead yet. There was no happy ending. It had all been an illusion.
Fairy Queen stood behind him, panting. Her eyes were filled with utter rage as she glared at him and twisted the hand she had rammed through him. Part of her body was burned, and some of her flesh had dropped off her body. The golden glow in her chest was slowly dying down.
"You really almost got me there for a moment." She hissed through gritted teeth. "I was forced to actually drop my powers over reality and catch you in my illusion. Fuck you! You know I hate that worthless power, you scumbag!"
Battery barely pulled himself off the hand and nearly collapsed. He clutched at his stomach, struggling to keep his guts inside his body. His healing power wasn't good enough to fully restore organs. He whipped his body around and fired out a wave of his healing aura, but it bounced off of the girl.
Fairy Queen rammed her fist into his face and slammed him headfirst back onto the sandy floor. She ground her knuckles into him and began to dig his head deeper into the earth. "That won't ever work on me again, you little bastard. I've already figured out how to twist the reality of that power. It'll never reach me again." Battery grunted as her fingers wrapped around his face, and she lifted him up. "Die."
She smashed his head into the ground, then raised him up again. She smashed his head back down. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth-
That ball came back to him for a moment. His head smashed into the ground, and suddenly he was back on the rooftops with Hope, tossing the ball back and forth. The sun was already setting. They had been there for a while now.
Hope caught the ball and looked down at it. "Do... Do you think I can actually save my dad?" She asked quietly. "Be honest. Am I doing all of this for nothing?"
Jack caught the ball that she threw back at him. He tried to think of an answer for a few moments. "Do you trust me?"
She caught the ball and shrugged. "Should I not?"
"Aren't you mad at the secrets I've kept?"
"I mean, to an extent, I guess I was a little annoyed." She shrugged. But you've told me now. I still kind of wish you mentioned the fact that I was a Lord from the very start. I get why you did it, though. Fifteen years is a long time to be by yourself." She looked back down at the ball in her hands after he tossed it to her. It was badly damaged by now and barely hanging on. "All that time with so many secrets. It'd be hard to ever talk to anyone the same way again."
Jack caught the ball once more. "I think... I think that if you didn't try to save your father, succeed or fail, you'd hate yourself for the rest of your life. That said, I'm here to do everything I can. I made a promise that I would help the Lord of the Sun out any way I could."
"That's why you're doing all of this, right?" Hope sighed.
"No."
"Huh?"
Jack tossed the ball back to her, and she caught it. "Even before I truly knew you were a Lord of the Sun, I think that you..." That beach was back. That timeline. Something that could have been. "You reminded me of someone."
"You mean Full Monarch."
"No. Someone that I wish could have been." He rubbed his neck awkwardly. It would have been nice, in another timeline where Super's didn't exist, to just go to the beach and relax. A future that could never exist in this world, a wife gone, and a child never born. "Never mind. I'm just rambling."
Hope smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Mr. Larison."
"What for?"
"I was freaking out a bit earlier. I felt like the whole world was going to cave in on me. I guess... I don't know, but this has been a lot of fun." She threw the ball one more time, but it finally gave out. It broke to bits and crumbled right as Jack caught it. He stared down at it in his hands in silence, watching it fall apart. "Aw! It's over already!" Hope whined.
"I can always get a new one." Jack shrugged.
"So, we can do this again sometime?"
"Sure, kid. As many times as you want." That was a lie, though. He honestly didn't know if he'd be able to do this ever again. "Kid..."
"Yeah?"
"Nah. Never mind."
"What is it? No more secrets!"
Jack snorted. "I just wanted to say. I had fun."
She smiled and looked at him. "I trust." She said quietly. "I think… You're a good person."
Battery's eyes snapped open as his head slammed into the floor. Sand was feeling his lungs, and his vision was turning red. Fairy Queen's fingers were clawing into his face, and her reality was forcing its way past his face, trying to blow his skull to bits.
'Jack.' Full Monarch's voice came from above him. He couldn't see the man, but he could feel the eyes.
"Die. Die. Die. Die!" Her grip grew tighter, and blood covered his eyes, or maybe his eyes blew up. He honestly wasn't sure anymore. "I'm going to kill you! Then I'm going to kill every member of that stupid team of yours! I won't let a Lord of the Sun ever reach its full power ever again!" Her other hand grabbed at Battery's throat and began to crush it as her reality twisted and bore down on him. "Die. Be gone, you traitor."
"I- I won't let you hurt them." Battery's golden light began to flicker, and he gasped as he felt his body giving out. His heart was pounding like it was about to blow. He tried to grab at her, but he was quickly losing strength.
'Get up Jack.'
Fairy Queen's hand was about to fully crush Battery's head. Her lips twisted into a dark smirk, and she practically howled with joy. "This is it! This is where you-"
'Stand up and fight, Jack!'
Battery's hand finally came up and managed to wrap itself around her face. She put up her barrier to keep herself safe from his golden light. It wasn't the golden light that came out, though. Battery's eyes lit up with a blue glow, and the lines along his costume shifted and changed. She felt reality itself cracking and burning as his fingers dug into her face, and, in a burst of bright blue, Battery blasted her off of him.
'Don't ever give up. Don't ever stop fighting. Don't let your story reach an end like that. Not with the life that I gave you. Fight. Save them all, Jack Larison.'
Fairy Queen hit the floor and rolled across it. Her eyes stared up at Battery as he stood up, all his damage instantly repaired. Blue energy crackled all across his form. "Sorry, Nick. I'll be burning through the last of my energy." His power. Not the Victorian's light, but his own. This wasn't solar energy that crackled around him. It was something else. A power that could distort and break through anything. The strength of a Giant swelled out. It went by many names. It was Creation and Destruction itself. He preferred to just call it Imaginary Energy. The ability to imprint his will upon the world in the desired shape he wanted.
"A- Alpha." Fairy Queen scooted back as she stared up at Battery. The blue light was crackling and growing stronger. This wasn't the hero Battery that she was looking at. It was the monster created by the Emperor. The Emperor's son, the Emperor's Giant, the tool of the Emperor, created to wipe out the Lord of the Sun. The enemy of Man.
Alpha was back.
And yet...
Battery felt it in his heart—a pain unlike anything else. The golden light was seeping out—the power of the Victorian. It was melting a hole into his heart, turning itself into a mini-star, one able to destroy the entire universe that was his body. Death was crawling toward him before. Now, though, it was sprinting.
"I've made my choice." Battery's energy grew around his fingertips and expanded. The air above him took shape as energy was birthed into existence and formed into the fist of a Giant. Fairy Queen tried to block it, but it simply destroyed the reality she had twisted and broke through toward her. "I'll die. But I'm taking you to hell with me."
The Ruler of Giants had returned.
It approached...
The ground began to turn a nasty gray color and break away. Plant life shriveled up and died. A horrible shriek filled the air. Inky shadows seeped out, crawling forward, getting faster and faster. No matter how fast he ran, it always seemed to be just behind him.
Buildings tumbled down and broke away as the Virus ate them, and dust rained down from the sky in thick waves. The air was ashy and dark, and each breath was harder to take than the last. Laughter echoed down the streets and twisted, all forming a cruel song.
Kyle felt himself crash into something, and his legs gave out as he tumbled down the ruined street, smashing face-first into the ground. He yelled in pain and tried to scramble back to his feet, but was unable to get up. The ground had cracked and broken, and, in his haste to escape the Virus, he had twisted and snapped his ankle.
It approached... The Dead Virus slowed down to match him as he tried to crawl away. It didn't need to hurry anymore. Kyle screamed and flung his arms out, trying to inch away. It was almost like a spider quietly waiting for its prey to tucker out.
It was only for a single second, but Kyle risked a look back behind him. He saw it as clear as day within the darkness. Golden lights seeped within the Dead Virus. A tendril stretched out, and Kyle was unable to stop it. His pants leg hissed out and broke away into dust, and the tendril wrapped around his broken ankle. The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Like jagged needles, it tore its way into his flesh, rotting it from the inside out and killing every cell one by one.
Hope's father put up with this every day. The cells popped and died, crumbling to dust and gradually spreading throughout his body. Mr. Lauren had only been given the smallest of doses. This was a fate Kyle would not receive.
He wasn't even able to scream as he was lifted off his feet, and the tendrils stabbed their way into his flesh. His eyes exploded, and his jaw was nearly torn off as they squirmed their way into him. All the while, he was literally turning into dust. It might have been a quick death for others. It was only a few seconds before his body had broken down, but for him, it was slow, starting at the bottom, and time itself seemed to come to a crawl.
The approach of death couldn't have been slower.
He screamed and shook as it all came to an end. His blanket was thrown off of him, and he got himself into a tangled mess on his bed. The door to his room exploded open, and he heard shouting but couldn't make it out. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and he slowly stopped shaking as his heart settled down.
"It was just a nightmare! You're okay, Kyle. I'm here for you."
"D- Dad?" Kyle let out a shaking gasp as the world finally fit itself back into place. He was alive. The Dead Virus hadn't gotten him. That had just been a nightmare. One that he seemed to always find his way back to every night he closed his eyes. "Did I wake you?"
He didn't always get to be close to his dad. Even now, he never really got to see too much of the man. His dad was always working. "No." Mr. Brenner shook his head. He was already dressed in his uniform. "I was actually called away. The mayor needs me for extra security. He's heading to some concert. Would you like to come? I hear it's one that's popular with the kids."
"No, thanks..." Kyle rested his head on his arms as he curled into a ball. "I don't feel that good." Hope had asked him to go to the same concert earlier that day, but he couldn't bring himself to get out of bed today.
He heard his father grumble something. "You're sixteen now, soon to be seventeen. This should be the time of your life. Look at your room."
"What's wrong with my room?" It was fairly bland. They lived in a big house. Some would even call it a manor. It was the kind of place his father would hire people to come and clean and tidy up. His room was large, but he didn't have anything in it other than his bed and a desk for schoolwork. Besides his closet, which held his clothing, you'd think it was a guest bedroom. "It's not messy or anything."
"That's the issue," his dad snorted. "When I was your age, I had clothes scattered everywhere, half a dozen video games, and posters of Full Monarch everywhere."
"When you were my age, you still had your whole life ahead of you."
Mr. Brenner froze as his son stared down at his bed with hollowed eyes. "You don't need to be scared of him. I'll keep you safe."
"Just like how you kept mom safe?"
The officer turned away from his son. "I've called Metal Ronin. He'll be staying while I'm gone. I'll be back as soon as I've finished up with the mayor."
"Okay."
Kyle watched his father walk toward the door, but the man stopped. "Kyle."
"Yeah?"
"I love you." The man closed the door on his son and sighed. Slowly, Mr. Brenner made his way downstairs. "Thanks again for coming over on such short notice."
"Don't mention it." Rowan shrugged when he saw the older man. He was seated at the table and played around with a briefcase. "It's literally my job. Super smart hero by day. Bodyguard by night. I pulled the short stick. I still think Wasp Nest would have been better for this position." The hero muttered.
Mr. Brenner nodded his head. "Where's your suit?"
"Oh! In this briefcase." The boy excitedly held it up. "I came up with a cool way of putting it on quick! By using folding-"
"I don't care. Just make sure you keep it close in case you need to suit up," the officer said, cutting the hero off. "I'll be gone for a few hours. I'm going to be working as a bodyguard for the mayor. Kyle's up in his room. He just woke up."
"Yeah, I heard." Rowan winced and tapped his fingers on the table. "It isn't the first time I've seen something like that. Money Tree would often wake up screaming after he went to fight the Beast with Myth two years ago. Even now, he has nightmares. The Beast is almost like a wild animal. It doesn't do anything out of hate. It just does what it was programmed to. Lucifer, on the other hand... I can't imagine what your son must have gone through."
Brenner folded his arms and leaned against the cabinet, letting out a heavy sigh. "It was one year ago. I took my family on a vacation. We flew out to Gladiolus City. It's usually one of the safest places on Earth. Max Lightning guards it and stops crimes before they can even truly begin. They had gone up ahead. I still needed to clear some things up at the border. I was outside of the city when it began... How much do you know about the Murder Games?"
Rowan stopped playing with his briefcase and balled his hand into a fist. "Back in the day, Lucifer was considered a Calamity level threat. After Full Monarch and Nier stopped him, he lost that title and most of his power. The Emperor, the Beast, and Chrysanthemum are the only true Calamity level threats now. This is because they threaten the entire planet. Lucifer is dangerous but, at the end of the day, is mostly isolated in one place when he appears. He runs a team called the Immortals. They are a bunch of crazy bastards who all worship the Shadow and think that they got their powers from it. Every year or two, they appear just after the Beast and host the murder games in a random city."
"That's right." Brenner nodded and unfolded his arms as he bowed his head. "They turn an entire city into the game zone. Stop people from getting in and out, and then select their players. Kyle was caught in the middle of this game last year. Unlike when the Beast comes to a city, the Murder Games don't completely erase it off the map. Still. A lot of people die in the crossfire." His fingers traced the wedding ring he still wore. "When they're over, the survivors aren't even given a chance to catch a break."
"Ten players are chosen." Rowan cut in. "Five members of the Immortals, and then five citizens. The goal of the Immortals is to kill all five citizens before the heroes stop them. Along the way, they also kill every other person who's in the city. A total slaughter. Because they're immortal and so powerful, the Enforcers tend to give up on trying to save the five citizens and instead focus on saving every other person. When the game is over and all five citizens are killed, the Immortals simply vanish. They'll eventually return to do it all over again in a new city. There's a catch, though. It isn't random. We discovered that the five citizens they select are always people who were caught in the crossfire of a previous murder game. Since Kyle was in the city at the time of a Murder Game happening, he, along with a few other hundred people, all have a chance of being picked as players the next time the games start. The chances of Kyle actually being picked are slim. The Enforcers saved over ninety percent of the Gladiolus people last year. Kyle's odds are about one in a million. Not really, but you get the point. Despite that, though, Boy Genius still prefers to move potential players around and assign them a bodyguard, just in case."
"It's about the only good thing you heroes have done for my son." The officer grumbled.
"Do you not like heroes?"
"I don't like Supers in general." The officer stood up and made his way over to the door, about to leave. "I'll work with them, though. Good or evil, it doesn't matter. Supers killed my wife, and I'd rather they all die. But. If it means saving my son's life, improving his chances, and keeping him alive, then I'll work with a hero, or I'll work with a villain. Anything to ensure Kyle sees one more year."
"That's kind of a dangerous way of thinking."
"I'm a father. Doing dangerous things for my kid is part of my job."
"I guess. But that's a sad way of thinking, isn't it?" Rowan hummed. "I mean, what happens when you find yourself straying too far and you're alone?"
"Then I'll think to myself. I did enough. Because me going too far means that I've stacked the deck as much as I can for my son. When I reach the end of my path, good or bad, I'll look back and find that I don't regret a single choice that I made. Because I love my son."
***
Mr. Brenner stared up at the sky with dull eyes. Even if Oleander was in the middle of the night, out here in the Wastelands, the rules didn't bother making sense. The sun bore down harshly, but it was nothing compared to the burning sensation in his hand.
He had gone too far now. Yet he didn't regret a single instance of it.
"What's up with that tower?" He turned his gaze and found himself looking at Whisper. The girl was working on making sure he didn't bleed out while BB stood on guard, ready to keep them both safe with a wind barrier.
"You were in the machine," Brenner said in a hollow tone. "You heard as much as I was told."
"Why did you work with Sunshine?" Whisper asked. "You're a police officer. You work with the Hero Branch and, by proxy, with heroes. Why would you ever think it was a good idea to side with someone who was one of the biggest evils in Oleander?"
"He simply had the best-sounding idea."
"What? Best for what?"
"For taking down Lucifer."
"Seriously?" Whisper snorted a bit. "You think that he'll actually be able to beat Lucifer? The Emperor couldn't kill Lucifer, Full Monarch couldn't kill Lucifer, and now in our time, no hero has been able to kill and stop him for good. What makes you think some random villain can do it? Sure, Wish might be under the mayor's control and a Lord of Life, but that can't be the sole trump card you have, right?"
"If you're trying to get me to talk more, it won't work." The man kept staring up at the sky. He was glad he had seen his son and told him he loved him earlier that night, but he doubted he would ever get the chance again.
Whisper sighed as she worked on his arm. She was tying it down and making sure the bleeding would at least be slowed. It wasn't much; they'd need to get him to Paragon soon. "Why do bad guys always have a do-or-die kind of mindset?"
"Because if they didn't, it would be too easy for us heroes," BB stated.
Mr. Brenner ignored the two girls and looked back at the tower that hung in the distance. Wish was within it, and Mr. Grove had made a break for it. "You all lost the moment you let that man get away."
"Maybe." Whisper hummed. She followed his gaze, but instead of staring at the tower, she stared at the battle going on in front of it. "He'll need to get past that first," she said.
A massive river of lava held the body of the Golden God. The villain's many arms easily tore into the flesh of the giant worm-like monsters that tried to drag him further down. He was slowly rising out of the ground, and a gray beam of energy zapped out of his fingers, aging the worms and breaking them down to dust. As he lifted out of the sinkhole Myth created, the side of his head was beginning to dent and crack as massive shards of ice and a sea of bullets rammed into him.
"I don't mean to alarm you, but it looks like we're not hurting him," Myth said.
"Yeah. I noticed." Ocean Empress snapped her fingers, and a trail of water began to form into the shape of a sea dragon. The beast roared and bit down on one of Golden God's fingers, then froze solid, shattering and breaking the finger away. "We don't need to beat him. We just need to stop him from getting closer to the tower."
"Tell that to him."
Golden God batted away their attempts and began to fly toward the tower once more. A few of his arms pointed back at them, and he blasted out more orbs of gray light.
"Scatter." Roulette grunted out.
Myth flew into the air, and his body shifted into his winged lion-eagle form. He got above Golden God and then rammed himself down toward the face of the robot. Seconds before he reached it, he changed his form again and went back into his bull mode. His fist rammed into the eye of Golden God, breaking past part of it and ripping out some wires. Golden God barely seemed to care, and one of his arms lazily swatted Myth, blasting the bull off of him and sending the man roughly into the ground dozens of meters away.
Ocean Empress rode her ice board on a wave, moving herself in front of Golden God. She ran her finger through the air, thinning and compressing her water and firing it out as a wave of blades. Golden God went to block it with his hands, but millions of bullets formed together into chains and began to tie their way around his form, binding him in place and stopping him. Roulette lifted his rifle with one arm and aimed.
"Daughter of Old Dog. Duck." Ocean Empress dropped from the sky just in time. Roulette fired his rifle. The air exploded in a loud crack, and the entire gun crumbled to dust. The bullet rotated so fast through the air that it caught the wind itself on fire and blew through Golden God's stomach, ripping its way out of the machine and crashing through the man. One of Golden God's hands grabbed at the car-sized hole, and oil began to spill out. "I only brought one, but it looks like it actually did some damage." The elder man grunted.
"Damn!" Ocean Empress said with wide eyes. "How is it that I'm the Enforcer in this situation? You have some serious fire power! Get it? Fire power? Because of the-"
"Please stop acting like Snowdawn." Myth grunted, standing back up. Despite the damage, Golden God was barely slowed. Grey light blasted out of his golden flesh and caused the chains around him to crumble to dust. He was about to fly forward but was stopped again when Myth came crashing down. "I got a form I think you'll love!" Myth yelled.
The leader of Pantheon's form grew in size, getting larger. It wasn't as big as the Lava Monster form, which was his strongest and most destructive form. That form was too hard to control. The form he was turning into was a close second in terms of power. His flesh became a nasty gray, and he became so big that his entire foot pushed down into Golden God's face, nearly half the size of the machine. His elbow exploded and began to form into many arms.
A one-hundred-armed monster rose from the earth!
Myth roared and pulled all one hundred of his arms back. Golden God shook off the damage he took and also pulled his arms back. Monster and machine struck out at the same time, going blow for blow. Their fists connected, each one causing mini explosions to go off and shatter the area around them. They weren't the only ones giving it their all during this clash, though.
Metal Ronin and Casey fought, and both men engaged in a battle of swords. Casey had formed a blade out of solid blood and had a sneer on his lips as he and the hero went back and forth, blood meeting plasma.
"Are you about done yet?" Metal Ronin yelled back to his teammate.
"Almost!" Duplicity checked her watch and hummed. "Hold him back for like one more minute or so!"
"I don't know if I even have that time!" The tech-based hero created a shield on his arm and raised it just in time, blocking a barrage of blood beams. "Damn it! I should have just stayed home and babysat Kyle! Why the hell did I even agree to come? This sucks!"
"It's not so fun when you're fighting someone evenly matched with you, huh?" Casey smirked and jumped away. "It's what you Supers get."
"You're a Super also, you know."
"I wasn't always." Casey's teeth practically dug into his lip. "I wasn't born lucky like you. Neither were Hannah or Kevin. We didn't win the genetic lottery."
"Yet you still became a Super. Sounds pretty lucky to me-"
"You know nothing! It was this or die!" Casey hissed. The young man ran his hand over his bald head and scowled. "Life wasn't fair. I was supposed to go to college and get a degree in history. Instead, I find out I have cancer. I was practically a walking corpse before Wish discovered me and offered me a second chance. Where were you heroes, huh? Where was Paragon when I needed her to heal me? You don't get to be pissed that you're fighting me. I'm this way because a villain came to me first!" The boy's back split open, and tendrils of blood poured out. They took shape, turning into the heads of large hounds. The blood beasts howled, and a fountain of red-hot blood launched its way out. "Justified or not, I'm living my life!"
Cracks appeared all along Metal Ronin's shield as he struggled to block the attack. His armor started to scream at him, and he let out a grunt as the metal broke away. The blood never reached him, though. A harsh white light stepped in. Duplicity was bigger now. She looked like an adult, and her skin glowed white hot. Metal Ronin dropped to the ground and let out a sigh of relief when he saw her.
"Thank God! Thought I was a dead man for a second there!"
"I'll take it from here." The woman nodded. Her hand lazily swatted at another beam of blood that Casey launched at her. "Sorry."
"Sorry?"
"Sorry that no hero came for you when you needed them." She vanished, and faster than he could react, he felt a massive pain as her fist suddenly found its way into his stomach. "And I'm sorry that you became a villain. I'm here now though. I'll save you the only way I can. I'm going to stop you from hurting anyone else."
Metal Ronin let out a grunt as he felt part of his suit break away. It wasn't as good as he had hoped it to be. Speaking of which... He trailed his eyes toward the tower in the distance. "You better not be screwing things up, Hope."
Inside the tower, Paragon shook her head as Destiny stared at her sister and Cinder. Poseidon had her weapon rammed through the face of Wish, and Cinder made her way over. "Are you okay?" Cinder asked.
"Yeah." Paragon took the girl's hand and gave the shield back. "Thanks for throwing this to me. A second later, and I'd be dead."
"I'm a hero. It's what I do." Paragon nodded and picked Avalon's sword back up. "So, I guess this is the part you tell me to run while you and my sister fight Wish, right?"
"Nope."
"Huh?"
Cinder turned to look back at Poseidon. "She told me everything on the way over here. I think I get it for the most part. You and Wish are like a reverse fusion. Wish is trying to kill you to get the last bit of the Lord's power for herself, right? And if we kill her, she'll try to take you over."
"Yeah." Paragon let out a soft sigh. "I guess I have some of the power, which is drawn out of me when I'm in my realm. It's likely why I'm so strong there and able to control life as well as the Lords can. When Wish died due to Battery's attack, her soul didn't pass on. It's because that piece inside of me is keeping her here. If she dies again, she'll appear inside of my dream world and drag me in like she did last time. Previously, she just talked to me. This time though, I'm sure that she'll take it. She'll rip out the part of herself that's in me and absorb me into her becoming whole. Her dying will basically kill me."
Cinder nodded. "Yeah, that's the thing. I think I figured out how to save you, maybe. It's a long shot, though, so do you trust me?"
"Do I have a reason not to?"
Wish's body twitched, and bone-like spikes suddenly fired out of the girl's flesh. Poseidon was faster, though, and threw her arm out, tossing Wish's body off her weapon. Wish smacked into the back of the wall and slumped down a bit. The girl's head began putting itself back together, and she giggled a bit as her armor grew sharper, forcing muscle and bones to fuse together.
"No hesitation? I always heard that the Lord of the Sea was typically a monster, but still. Most people would at least think twice before striking someone who held the same face as someone they love."
"There are only three people within this world that I love," Poseidon announced. "My mother, my sister, and, of course, the one who has claimed my heart, Kenny! You've harmed two of those three people. I'm going to punish you for your arrogance. That's all there is to it."
"I forgot how scary your sister was," Cinder muttered, shivering.
"Cinder," Poseidon called out.
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure that your plan will work?"
"Like ninety percent?"
"Just so you know, if it fails and my sister dies, then you will also be executed." The hero announced this in a very unheroic-like way.
Cinder gulped but nodded her head. "Just what the hell is this plan that you came up with?" Paragon asked, grabbing onto Cinder's arm. "There's no reason to do it if it'll get both of us killed, you know!"
"It'll be fine," Cinder said, shaking her head. "If I'm wrong and it gets you killed, then I'll deserve to die. As simple as that."
"Why are you and my sister like this!"
Poseidon twirled her trident around, and water began to bend and twist around her. "Ready yourself, Lord of Life. I'm about to slay you."
"Oh? Do you really think you can?" Wish smirked. The girl tapped the side of her head. "I have all my cells within me. I haven't unleashed them all yet. If you can hit my weak spot, then you may be able to kill me for good. Of course, I won't really stay dead for too long. In fact, I already have my eye on my next body."
Poseidon didn't bother with a response. The gravity around Wish grew stronger, and the Lord of Life suddenly found herself brought to her knees. Wish's legs expanded and grew in size as the girl forced her muscles to grow stronger, and twisted bone armor grew from her wrist, allowing her to block the trident that came down on her. The edge of Wish's shoulder opened up and broke away a thin barrel made of bone growing out, which fired out a thin blood bullet directly at Poseidon's face.
Poseidon lowered her own body's gravity and leaned back as far as she could, the blood bullet flying past her. As it flew through the air, it grew in size and formed into what almost looked like a bug. It circled back toward Poseidon, but as soon as it entered her reach, it was crushed with a wave of intense gravity. The gravity grew so intense around Poseidon that the bug instantly shattered to dust.
Wish used that as her chance to escape and jumped back, tossing her hand out in the direction of Paragon. A bone spike fired out but never reached the blind girl as Cinder threw herself in front of the healer and blocked the attack with her shield.
"You should really focus all your efforts on the pissed-off sister," Cinder called out. "Doing things like that is just going to make Poseidon more mad."
Wish tried to turn back to Poseidon, but her entire upper body was torn clean off as Poseidon swung her weapon and formed a hammer made out of water on the edge of her trident. She blew Wish's torso to bits, but Wish's severed head sprouted a pair of bat wings and flew up. Poseidon tried to fire at it, but Wish's legs kicked out her lower half, still fighting. Poseidon was sent flying back as the pair of legs roughly kicked her in the side.
Poseidon broke her fall by stabbing her weapon into the ground. She clutched at her side and took a shaking breath. "She's tougher than I thought."
"Need my help?" Cinder asked.
"No. Keep taking care of my sister. I got this." The legs of Wish grew out, forming a massive wolf head out of muscles and bones. As for the severed head, it began to repair itself and grow its body back. "And you called me the monster-"
The wolf's head let out a loud roar and charged, breaking the metal floor apart. Its mouth opened wide, but Poseidon didn't even blink. Compared to the Beast, this was nothing. Water formed over her trident, and the gravity grew more intense. She stepped forward and thrust out with her weapon. The entire tower began to shake, and the metal on her trident started to bend and dent.
The bottom of the ocean was filled with so much crushing force that a person would pop from the pressure. As the Lord of the Sea and Depths, she had this power to command—water and weight, a sea of cosmic gravity.
The entire body of the wolf monster was blown to bits as Poseidon rammed her way through it as if it weren't even there. Chunks of it rained down, but they never even had a chance to hit the floor. All around the Lord of the Sea, everything began to twist and break as so much gravity swirled around, smaller than the size of a flea yet strong enough to consume and ruin everything that fell into her range, turning it and twisting it into something less than dust. In other words, she had surrounded herself with microscopic black holes.
"You were a fool for telling me where your weakness was," Poseidon called out, casually lifting her weapon up. "I'm going to put an end to this nightmare here and now."
Wish's head had finished forming its body. The girl had grown larger. Every inch of her flesh was covered in thick bone plating, and her muscles expanded to the max, making her nearly ten feet tall. Living armor strong enough to resist even the crushing depths of the ocean coated the girl's body, and she flexed. "Did I make a mistake? We'll see! You'll still need to get my head after all, you arrogant bitch!"
Wish used the roof and bounced off of it, exploding down with massive force. She was still growing in size, with muscle and bones jutting out wildly as she hit down at Poseidon with everything she had. Poseidon met her and rammed her trident up toward Wish's head with everything she had, water and gravity blasting off of her.
At the last second, Wish's head literally twisted on its body and moved out of the way of the trident. Poseidon's strike completely missed, and before the girl could recover, Wish's large arm tore into Poseidon, hitting the Lord hard enough to cave part of her chest in and send her trident flying high into the air. Poseidon was sent flying back, and she smashed back first into a wall, black blood gushing out of her mouth.
"Lily!" Paragon screamed in horror.
"It was too obvious you'd go for my head!" Wish giggled.
Poseidon gasped and clutched at her chest. Despite the serious wound she took, the girl smirked, "And... And it was too obvious you'd try and stop me."
"Huh-"
The gravity around her still-falling weapon tore it down so fast that Wish didn't even have time to react. The trident was outstretched, and it came down on top of Wish with so much weight that it ripped right through the girl's skull and split her in two straight down the middle. Poseidon had used Wish's own attack to set up her killing blow.
"Another thing..." Poseidon collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. "Do you think I'm an idiot? I stabbed you clean through the head before we even began to battle. You think lying about you having a weak spot will make me let my guard down?" Wish's torn body screamed out in anger as it tried to put itself back together and swing at Poseidon. "That's why I told her to stay on the sidelines. Directly in your blind spot." Poseidon sighed.
The fist came out in slow motion, ready to rip right through the hero. Wish wasn't fast enough, though. Cinder came rocketing forward, holding the body of Paragon; both girls let out a loud yell. Cinder rammed her hand out, her hair glowing brightly as she unleashed the same beam she had shown Wyvern. The fire flashed out, washing over the hunk of mass that was Wish and burning it to less than ash, faster than the girl could heal from. The beam tore through part of the tower and kept going, flying past the clouds and leaving the planet. Then, in a flash, the beam suddenly vanished. Along with Wish, Paragon, and Cinder. Poseidon stood in the tower, now alone, breathing heavily.
"Good luck, Cinder. I'm leaving the rest to you, so don't screw this up."
Wish screamed as she felt herself be destroyed. All at once, she saw nothing. Just a black, inky void. She was dead. Every cell burned to ash before she could send them out by Cinder. Slowly, though, she felt herself crawling toward the one person left who had a connection with her. The Emperor created Sky with his power as a means of bringing the daughter he lost to the Beast back. She was meant to be his heir and held some of his power. As the Lord of Land and Life, that connection was now hers. Color hit her as a world built itself before her.
A field of flowers and a strangely colored sky—the dream world. The battle for the body was about to begin. She could feel it—the core—the piece of a soul that rightfully belonged to her—a missing piece to the puzzle. She held her hand out, and everything began to die and wither away to nothingness.
"You can come out now." Wish taunted. "I know you can sense me. Let's get this over with, dear Sky. I control more of the shard within us, so you have no power in here."
"That's why she brought me."
Wish felt her eyes widen, and she whipped around, finding Sky and an uninvited guest. "How!"
Cinder folded her arms and gave a sly grin. "I have a power you don't seem to have," Sky explained. She was back in her dress and also had a smile on her lips. "I can bring a guest with me to my dream world—a means of absorbing them if I want. While here, I guess you do have control of this place, but at the end of the day, it is still my world, and I get a say on who comes and goes. When you died, you ended up here and dragged me in forcefully. I simply used my power to invite the person I was holding onto to come along with me. Normally three people couldn't exist in this world like this, but you aren't supposed to be here. Cinder, could you be a dear and get rid of this uninvited guest?"
Cinder stepped forward and punched her palm. Fire twirled around her, and she stared the Lord of Life down. "Get ready. I have no need to hold back here. I'm stopping you for good, Wish!"
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