"Paragon?" A very confused Cinder asked.
"Hey, isn't that the sword Battery needed to teleport to us?" Snowdawn questioned. "I feel like her having it isn't a good sign."
"Where the hell did I end up?" Paragon managed to get off of Cinder and crawl into the back seat of the van, falling onto her back. Destiny rested on the blind girl's stomach, looking around wildly and working as her eyes.
"What are you doing here?" Cinder panicked.
"This sword is alive." The girl explained, pointing at Battery's sword, which was stabbed into the seat.
"What?"
Cinder stared at the sword that had impaled itself into her seat. She pulled it out with ease and gripped it tightly. "Is everything alright, Paragon? You aren't making a lot of sense right now. I'm guessing things didn't go well if you're here."
The van rumbled and shook as Myth spoke. "What did you mean that the sword is alive?" He questioned. "We're going to need an actual explanation, Paragon."
Paragon nodded and tried to wrap her head around it. She stared at the sword Cinder was holding through Destiny's eyes. "That blade is Harrison Avalon. I think...'
"You think?" Snowdawn asked, frowning.
Cinder shot the blade a look and tightened her grip around it. In a movie or comic, the sword would speak to them. Try to talk them into working with it, like most curse blades did. Not this one, though. It didn't glow or change at all as she tightened her grip on it, digging her nails into the handle. The blade held strong, and even as she began to heat it up with a light wave of fire, it didn't react. "Should I break it?" She finally asked sheepishly.
"No!" Snowdawn said with wide eyes. "Have you seen what Battery can do with that sword? Are we sure it's actually Avalon? What if he just swapped places with it?"
"Avalon, as far as I know, doesn't have the ability to change into a sword." Myth stated shaking the van once more.
"I saw it happen. Or at least Destiny did." Paragon said, shaking her head. "He glowed and then morphed into it. He said he was in the Emperor's army and the partner of Battery. I think he was turned into a monster, but instead of turning into a beast, the Emperor changed him into a weapon? I guess that's something the Emperor can do? The sword didn't say anything, but it did take me here."
"Why?"
"He said Wish was here."
Cinder winced and rubbed the back of her neck, getting some of the tension out. "Well, Battery did say she likely isn't dead, and we are following after the Wandering Coin."
Sky's face paled a bit, and she balled her hand into a fist. "So, Avalon was telling the truth. You are planning on fighting Wish again."
She just shrugged. Snowdawn sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What is even happening anymore? Can we just call the others and ask what's going on at their end?"
"No signal." Myth said, shaking his head. Whisper had stopped responding to him around the time she hit the Wasteland. He also hadn't been able to get a hold of anyone on either his phone or the radio since they were now too far away from the city, so they had no way of contacting Watch Dogs. They'd need to get back into the city if they wanted to let anyone know what was happening. "We also can't just leave Whisper to fend for herself. If there is a gate in that place they're heading to, it will let them know she's there, and they'll find her sooner or later. Besides, Whisper is as strong as a normal human, so I don't think she'd be able to walk all the way through the Wasteland and get back to a city. We need to get her and then get back to the city as soon as possible."
She nodded and cracked her knuckles. "Get me closer to that ship. I'll shoot it down, and we can scoop Whisper up and fly away-"
"Better idea!" Snowdawn announced, pointing at the sword she was still holding. "Guys, we have a teleporting sword with us! Let's just use it to teleport Whisper to us, or us to Whisper, or whatever we have to do, and then run!"
"Paragon just said the sword was Avalon, who I'm pretty sure is evil." She said flatly.
Snowdawn snapped his fingers. "Right. Let's say that it really is Avalon. Hello, Mr. Avalon. You're now stuck here with us, and I'm guessing you can't do anything. Battery mentioned that the way he teleports is by giving a verbal command. I'm guessing that's how your power works. Teleporting powers always have a weird gimmick like that. You're a sword right now, though, so you can't speak. I'm guessing that means you can't teleport. I actually came to this conclusion because otherwise you'd be way too op. I mean, you'd be able to just tp yourself into people and kill them or something, right? But you can't. You've been relying on your teammates this entire time. You have a bunch of rules you have to follow, just as Battery said. Verbal is just one; you also have to know a person to teleport to them or a location to go there. So now you're trapped here with us. You could maybe turn back and then use your power to teleport since you'd be able to speak, but we'd likely jump you. So, in other words, you have no choice but to help us!"
"That's actually a good idea." She muttered.
"I have my moments."
She gripped the sword tightly with both her hands and awkwardly raised it up. She had seen Battery use it a bit and heard them discuss how the blade worked. She cleared her throat. "B- Bring Whisper here!" Silence hung in the van as nothing happened. She used her senses, but there was no pop or anything. It hadn't worked. "Okay. Maybe then, take me to Whisper? Put me on the ship? Bring Battery here? Take me to Battery? Put me in Oleander?" Each time she spoke, the blade remained still and didn't respond.
"Well, that isn't good." Snowdawn winced.
"The sword isn't yours," Myth sighed. "Now that I think about it, I remember Battery saying something about this. The same thing goes for Green Wolf. Those two are allowed to borrow the blade if they have permission from the owner. I guess if you don't get permission, then it's just a cool-looking blade."
"Can I try?" Paragon asked. "The sword worked for me, after all." The healer suddenly had an awful feeling in her gut.
"Sure." Cinder quietly handed the sword over, a little salty that she wasn't able to teleport with it. "Give it a go."
Paragon took the sword and gulped. "Bring Whisper here." Just like with Cinder, nothing happened. "Take me to Whisper? Still nothing, huh? It worked when I asked it to take me to you. Hmm. Put me back in Cinder's lap?" Still nothing. That growing pit of worry got larger in her gut. "Damn it."
"Why'd it work before?" Cinder questioned.
"No clue." That was sort of a lie. She had a pretty good idea. The blade belonged to Avalon. It had been created by the Emperor and passed down to Jack. He could let others borrow it, but that was it. In other words, she wasn't the owner of the sword. He had let her borrow it to escape. As for why, she had no idea, but it painted a single picture in her mind. He had gotten away. Maybe the sword really wasn't him. All of this was still according to Avalon's plan.
Snowdawn huffed and folded his arms. "Seriously? And here I thought I had some great ideas. Still, as long as we have the sword, the bad guys can't use it, so it's not like it is bad for us to have it, right?"
"That's true." Cinder smiled, already returning to her bubbly self. She punched her palm, and soft flickers of flame made small blasts all along her arms. "We'll just do my old plan. Myth! Get me close to that ship! I'm going to blast it down, grab Whisper, and then all of us will run for the city!"
The ship in question wasn't too far from them now. They were less than two miles away from the metal structure that came out of the ground, and the mayor's robot had kept to a straight path, heading directly for the thing. The Wandering Coin members had definitely noticed them, as a few seconds later, the remaining arm of the robot turned to face toward them and began to fire a wave of bullets at them. Myth's wings folded, and he allowed himself to drop, easily dodging the gunfire.
They had been noticed down below as well, dozens of large metal trucks and other machines built from scrap trailing behind them, clearly interested in looting whoever fell out of the sky first.
She took a calm breath and rolled down her window. She allowed half her body to hang out. Her shield had been turned off, leaving it as just a bracelet, so she was able to hold both her arms out in front of her. Fire began to swirl out of her palms, forming a large bow, which she drew back. "I'm counting on you to grab onto something, Whisper." The girl could see the Paths of the world, so she was confident Whisper would be able to avoid dying in the crash. She still held back quite a bit, though. "Here goes nothing!"
The arrow expanded and blasted out with incredible speed! The robot was too slow to dodge, and her attack easily blew off its last arm. It began to spin rapidly and fall toward the ground below. Right before she could cheer, though, the back of the machine blasted away as a wave of red fired out toward them. Something was blasting out of the robot. Thin and so fast, she couldn't even react to it. Whatever it was, it easily sliced through one of Myth's wings, causing the hero to let out a loud cry.
"Grab onto something!" Snowdawn yelled out. "We're going down!"
Myth lost control of his flight, and the heroes began to fall, just like the robot. More of the metal on the machine broke away as a pair of large red wings made of liquid formed and began to slow its fall. The robot made a relatively soft crash landing in comparison to the heroes behind it.
Whisper's van smashed into the ground at high speeds, shards of metal and glass blasting out. She was reminded of that damned day once more. The day she first met Lucifer. The day her father crashed the car and got the Dead Virus. She wasn't that little girl anymore, though. She was something else. Something far stronger.
The glass easily broke when it hit her, and she grabbed Snowdawn and dragged him to the back, throwing him next to Paragon, using her body to shield them. She held onto both of them as tightly as she could as they flipped across the ground. Up above, Myth was sent flying off of them, and he also crashed across the sand of the Wasteland. Snowdawn and Paragon both gripped onto her like a lifeline as the ride finally came to a rough stop.
"I- Is everyone okay?" She asked breathlessly.
"I think this is the last time I go on a mission with you guys," Paragon grumbled, still clutching onto her. Destiny rested in her hair, its claws wrapped tightly around Paragon's scalp.
"Check on Myth." Snowdawn groaned.
She nodded and quickly tore the metal from what was left of the car's wall away, allowing them to step out. Sand and glass stretched out in all directions. All around them, bright beams of harsh sunlight stabbed down, burning the ground and causing sparks of flame to rise. They could hear yelling and screaming around them in all directions, as well as loud roars. The Wandering Coin machine had crashed only half a mile away from the tower, so they were on a severe time limit and still didn't have Whisper.
The Wasteland wasn't the kind of place you'd want to stay in for long, if at all. Besides the intense heat and literal death rays that rained from the sky, it was also filled to the brim with giant monsters, the same kind that would rampage in cities or towns and require the Victorian to stop. It also had dozens of villains who had escaped from it, roaming the wastelands to avoid the cities. People like Intake had belonged here and thrived out in this land, though Polaron's group had picked up Intake and forced the man to join the Bad Timers. It was common for most villains to roam these lands looking for lost treasures from the old days, such as Mental-based tech or strong Supers they could add to their army.
All across the land were perfect circle-shaped cutouts that were filled with molten glass from the many holes that were in the sky above. Each hole was about ten feet wide and flat on his stomach. Myth rested in one, seemingly unconscious, his feathers slowly burning away.
"That's not good!" She ran toward him, and instantly, her foot sank into the ground as soon as she passed over the circle. It was a pool of molten glass that rose up and tried to eat away at her. She could feel the harsh sunlight on her skin, and for a moment, she even swore she could see the flickers of radiation that bore down. Even as tough as she was, it burned, but she ignored it and grabbed Myth, forcing him out of the circle. She dragged him toward Snowdawn and Paragon. "P- Paragon!"
"I'm on it." The blind girl touched Myth, pressing her palm into his burned body. He howled a bit, but gradually, his skin and fur began to regrow, and the sparks of fire on him faded away. He quickly shrank back down to his human form as his eyes snapped open. Next, Paragon grabbed her hand, also healing the damage she took. "There. No more burns, and I fixed the damage caused by the radiation. A few more moments, and you'd have a really bad case of skin cancer."
"You can cure radiation?" She said a little surprised.
"Sort of. Radiation damage harms your DNA and cells, so I just used my power of cell control and cell creation to pop all the damaged cells and replace them quickly with undamaged copies." The healer said, casually moving a strand of hair behind their ear. "I could likely even make a copied body of you if I spent enough time, though the body wouldn't have a soul since I can't create those."
"You've gotten a lot better with your powers!" She was also noticing Paragon seemed more eager to use them as opposed to before.
"I've been practicing." The girl shrugged. "Everyday I watch my sister get a little stronger, and I don't want to be left behind."
Snowdawn cleared his throat, getting their attention. "As good as it is that the two of you are bonding, I don't think now is the time." The snow-covered boy said flatly. "Is it safe for us to be so close to these holes?" He questioned. His ice armor was practically gone, melting faster than he could create it. "Also, are you going to be okay, Paragon? You have the stats of a normal human. I'm shocked you're even standing through this."
"I'm fine. I've had worse." Paragon shrugged. Now that the healer thought about it, she wasn't really that hot. The others were practically sweating, and even Cinder looked like she was burning up, but she felt perfectly fine. Paragon couldn't help but get a bit uneasy at that. Why wasn't she being affected like the others were? Ever since she had run into Wish in her dream world, things had been going a little differently than she was used to. Had her powers started to change? If so, was that a good or bad thing?
Was she still Paragon?
Myth stood up, and his body morphed into his bull form, which allowed him to take the heat far better. The leader of Pantheon sighed when he saw the state of Whisper's ride. "She's going to be so mad."
"I think she'll get over it if we save her," Cinder said, shaking her head. "Speaking of which, we need to hurry. If you're all better, Myth, we should get back to flying- Get down!" She threw herself into Paragon as Snowdawn and Myth jumped to the floor.
More red blurs blasted over their heads, moving so fast that it burned her eyes to look at them. They were rapid-fire, and whatever they were, they weren't made of energy. During her fight with White Lamb, she had discovered she could enhance her eyes and see things most people couldn't. When looking at energy-based attacks like with Battery or Green Wolf, she was able to see the particles that made it up. Whatever this beam was, it was a solid, not made of those particles, and it was something her eyes couldn't see through. The beams twisted and tore through the floor and the rest of the van, ripping it apart with ease.
"Just like my sister." Paragon hissed out, still under her.
"What?"
"Those attacks," the blind girl explained. Her bird was staring up at them, and thanks to the bit of power Paragon had, the girl was able to make out what was within each strand. "Whoever is shooting at us is doing something my sister does sometimes. She'll compress a mass amount of water, thin it out into a spike, and shoot it at stupid levels of speed."
The red beams kept coming, not allowing them a moment to rest. Each shot cracked through the sound barrier, but it was way faster than a bullet. In fact, it might have been even faster than Battery could run. The only thing she could think of that would be faster would be Battery's lasers, which were made of actual light and traveled just as fast since he could pretty much control his imaginary energy however he wanted.
"Great, so your sister can do something like this?" She said a little jealous. "So that guy's firing water-based attacks at us on the level of a Lord."
"Last I checked, water isn't red," Snowdawn yelled.
"That's because it isn't water. It's blood."
"Gross." She muttered.
Myth frowned at Paragon's blood statement. "Snowdawn, you said when you fought Kevin, he morphed his body?"
Snowdawn looked confused. "Yeah, Kevin's muscles and flesh would do all this weird stuff, and he'd grow. It reminded me of Mars King. He even started to look like him at the end. Why?"
Myth nodded. "Wish is the Lord of Land and Life. Kevin controlled his muscles and flesh. This guy is firing blood at us. When I spoke to the Watch Dogs, they said they also fought a member of the Wandering Coin who could control bones. All of the Wandering Coin Supers are basically just watered-down versions of Wish."
"Does that help us?"
"You bet it does. If they're watered down versions, that means they won't be as strong." Myth gave a smirk and jumped to his feet. One of the beams blasted forward and hit him square in the chest, but simply bounced off of him as his form changed into that of a lion. He ran on all fours, more beams bouncing off of him. As he passed, Snowdawn reached out and grabbed Myth's tail, allowing himself to be dragged. He held his hand on the floor, which caused a wave of ice to flow out, boosting Myth even further along. "Can you do your teleport?" Myth asked.
"It isn't teleporting, and I'd need to be at least five meters close to them to make it work," Snowdawn said. "Also, I'll be out of the fight for a bit once I do it, as it breaks all my ice and shuts my power off for a few minutes!"
"That's fine! We just need to get close enough, and we're golden!" The lion roared, still pushing through the hundreds of red blood beams that smashed into him. A sonic scream blasted out of Myth's mouth as he used his sound wave to form a quick wall. This attack had been able to outpower Polaron's rail gun, so it easily shoved its way through all the rapid beams, giving them a moment to catch their breath.
Back over at the crash, Cinder climbed off of Paragon and helped the girl out. "Sorry about this in advance."
"About what-" Paragon was forced off her feet as Cinder picked her up and jumped high into the air, blasting fire out of her feet and shooting her toward the sky. Paragon held onto her and let out a loud yell. "No more flying! This keeps going wrong for me!"
"That's why I said sorry!" She laughed. She turned her body in midair, and the fire around her legs grew even stronger as she blasted herself forward, heading to the villain's crash site. "Whisper! We're coming to save you-"
The ground exploded, sending a hail of ice and sand flying in every direction. Something massive rose from it, letting out a gigantic roar so strong that it nearly blew everyone's eardrums out. Covered in thick brown scales, it almost looked like an enormous worm, though it had rows of large teeth in a circular maw that began to fall towards them, opening wide to swallow Cinder and Paragon whole!
"Oh crap!" Both girls yelled.
A few minutes earlier...
Whisper pressed her back against the wall, watching the villains talk amongst themselves quietly. Thanks to her power, she remained out of sight and felt the oddest feeling in her gut. She couldn't help but stare at the large metal tower that hung in the distance—the thing that they were flying to. She had seen people who had Paths that would constantly change or people who had broken their Paths and stood outside of its realm. People like Battery or Myth.
This was the first time she had seen a location that had something similar, though. It wasn't the same, however. It didn't have a set of ever-changing Paths, instead, it had no Paths. No matter how closely she looked, she couldn't even begin to guess how things would go. Even the Paths around everyone else seemed to cut out and vanish the closer they got. Paths to her always looked like trillions of strings going in all directions, forming one big spider-like web. Each string was like a series of roads and trails going forward and backward. Not here, though.
Something had blown a massive hole in the web.
"So, what is this place exactly?" One of the figures in red, a girl judging by her voice, asked.
"This tower was built by a man known as Sini several years ago." The mayor explained. "He, along with the man known as Avalon, created it to be a launch pad, I guess you could say. It was built to try and send humans off of this world and escape in case the entity known as the Beast, or Shadow, ever returned. The Emperor ended up taking it over and using it to get himself onto the moon. After the war and the death of Sini, it was all but forgotten."
"This guy we had to meet." The other figure in red spoke quietly. This one was a guy. "He couldn't have come to us?"
"No. He could not."
Whisper watched all the villains closely. From what she could tell, Mr. Brenner and the mayor were just regular humans. If the mayor did have a superpower, then it wasn't something that boosted his stats, as she had knocked him out once already before they escaped. The real threats were Kevin and the two in red cloaks. There were three supers in total—five if you count Wish, though the white-haired girl still hadn't opened her eyes yet—and Doc, who she was sure was just a Mental-based villain.
"When we're done here, I'll need to tell my son goodbye," Mr. Brenner said quietly. "I went too far and got caught. I won't be able to come back from this one."
"Do you regret it?" Doc asked.
The officer shook his head. "No. It's for his own good. This is the only way. Only Wish can kill that damn monster known as Lucifer. I trusted the heroes, once. I even got one of them to watch over my son, but he still got hurt. The heroes failed me, and they still haven't been able to stop Lucifer. I don't care if it is on the side of evil; I don't care if I'll be going to hell and never see my wife again; I don't care if he ends up hating me. At the end of the day, if this saves his life, then I'll gladly accept my eternal damnation."
Whisper narrowed her eyes and slowly processed that. She never really got to see this 'Kyle' person. She knew of him because of Cinder and Metal Ronin, but maybe there was more to him than she first thought. His Paths would paint an interesting story-
"Incoming," the red-cloaked man said, letting out a sigh. "The heroes are on our trail."
She snapped her head up and stared at the monitor. Her van was being flown through the air by Myth, and she felt a little shocked to see it. Whatever this place was, it was having a serious effect on her ability to see the Paths because she hadn't seen them coming. She knew they'd give chase, but not like this.
The robot they were in began to fire toward her friends, and she reached for her taser just in case-
The entire robot shook as a massive wave of fire slammed into it. Metal blew to bits, and they began to fall. She slipped, and for the first time in a long time, she felt a wave of pain as her head cracked against the side of the glass box Kevin floated in. The boy's eyes instantly darted down to where she crashed, but she remained out of sight. She stayed low and rubbed at her head, feeling a small trickle of blood from beneath her helmet.
As they began to fall, the man in the cloak lifted his hand and pointed his fingers toward the back wall. The blood in his hands began to swirl around and gushed out of the tips of his nails. It fired, looking like thin red versions of Battery's beams. The blood bullets casually tore through the metal as he took a blind shot in the direction of the heroes. He didn't stop there, though, as he held his hands out in opposite directions, and this time, the blood that flowed stabbed through the walls of the robot, twisting into the shape of massive dragon-like wings.
The crash was still rough, and she felt her head jerk back, and once more, she slammed into the glass Kevin was in. The glass boxes crashed over and shattered, sending their fluids everywhere. Wish fell into the arms of the girl in red, who held onto her tightly while Kevin landed on his feet and slowly stood back up, fully healed for the most part.
The mayor and Brenner both held onto something as the crash finally settled down, causing both men to let out sighs of relief. Doc, meanwhile, accepted the fall and simply folded his legs, sitting casually as everything flew around him. "It looks like we're going to be taking the rest of the trip on foot." The mayor said, running his hands through his hair. "It also seems we've gotten lucky once more."
"How was that luck?" Kevin grumbled, finally speaking for the first time since his body was remade. "We lost some of the pods. We only have a few of those left, you know."
"One more left." Doc whistled, twirling his cane. "Back at the base, so if any of you die, it may take a bit for me to bring you back!"
The man in red flicked his hand and sliced the ship they were in apart, allowing them to get out. He also threw a spare cloak to Kevin and Wish. "Get dressed."
The girl wrapped Wish up in it and held onto her as they stepped out onto the sand. "What now?"
The mayor looked up toward the massive tower in the distance. The entrance to it, the vault, was high up, so they'd need a Super to enter. On top of that, they were still being chased by the heroes. "Casey, Hannah, the two of you stay here. Kevin, you take Wish. You're with me. Doc, you and Brenner are coming, too."
"Can I kill the heroes?" The man, apparently named Casey, asked as his blood began to expand out of his hands. He fired in the good guy's direction once more.
"You can do whatever you want."
"Yay!" The girl named Hannah cheered. Large bone spikes began to grow out of her flesh, forming sharp armor and claws. "Take good care of Wish, Kev." She said, handing the unconscious girl over to Kevin.
Kevin nodded and then turned and handed Wish to Brenner. "Actually, I think it's better if you hold her. There's someone else I need to grab."
"What?"
Kevin's ears expanded, growing larger and nearly doubling in size. Whisper let out a curse and tried to jump back, but it was too late. Kevin's entire body twisted around, and his arm grew to a massive size, easily wrapping around her waist and lifting her up. She let out a yell of pain as it squeezed down, broke some of her ribs, and caused her invisibility to fade away.
Casey and Hannah both cocked their heads as they stared up at her. They didn't have long to react, though, as seconds later, the roaring of a lion filled the air and ice blasted across the ground.
It was followed closely by a loud scream. "Whisper! We're coming to save you!"
"You guys are so screwed," Whisper announced. "My team is going to seriously kick your ass!"
Her smug look then faded, and once more, she was caught off guard when the ground exploded, and a giant worm came roaring out of it.
A monster had taken note of them.
"Oh crap!" Cinder yelled out with wide eyes.
"Holy crap, that thing is huge!" A stunned Paragon stated. Destiny clung to the girl, and it was thanks to the bird's eyesight that the healer could tell just how big this monster was.
The Emperor had gone around using his title as Lord of Life to turn many humans and Supers into monsters. This was done to greatly power up his army. Monsters like Polaron or Mars King kept their sanity for the most part and had a vaguely humanoid shape. A majority weren't so lucky, though.
This thing looked like a worm. It was massive, bigger than a skyscraper, and the ground kept breaking away as it got taller and taller, rising out. Its head had hundreds of sharp teeth, and it was falling toward them at insane speeds. Earthquakes seemed to go off for miles all around it, causing Myth to stop and cling to the ground.
Even the Wandering Coin froze as they stared at the monster in shock. They had never really seen one still alive. Most were wiped out by the Victorian the moment they came near a city. Out here in the Wasteland, where there was so much disaster and crime, she didn't bother, so these beasts had grown as big as they needed to, and there would be no golden savior that would come in and save them.
Cinder gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on Paragon. "Hold on tight. It's about to get rough!" Already, the worm was falling over, content to crush or eat them. Her fire roared out of her feet and blasted her away from the beast, but its body kept getting longer and longer, the shadow of it staying over them as it got lower and lower. It was at least forty meters wide and five miles long, maybe even bigger. "I don't think we're going to get away from it in time." She hissed.
"Any chance you could blast a hole through it?!" Paragon shouted.
"Good idea!" She curved her body, pointed her feet at the thing, stopped focusing on escape, and instead poured all her effort into blasting out a massive beam of fire from her legs. It sent her crashing to the ground, and she broke the fall with her back, slamming into their van and breaking it into further pieces. She kept Paragon shielded, and her foot beams twisted together and smashed into the massive worm.
The thing barely slowed down, and while its flesh began to burn and twist into a nasty black, it was still coming down faster than she could destroy it. It was insanely dense, able to survive in the core of the planet, so her fire was barely a warm bath to this thing. They were about to be crushed together. Her and Paragon were about to die.
Myth and Snowdawn were thankfully out of the way, as were the Wandering Coin. The creature seemed focused on just the two of them.
"It's not working." She called out, her beam beginning to die out as the worm was less than fifty feet away and coming down fast.
"Throw me into its mouth." Paragon announced.
"What! Won't you die from that?"
"Maybe, but even if I do die, if I can touch it, then maybe I can do something!"
"I'm not going to throw you at it! I'm a hero!"
"If you don't do something, then we'll both die!" The girl argued. "I can maybe mess with its cells or something, I don't know!"
She dropped Paragon and stood, holding her arms up. "I'll use all my super strength and stop it! When I do, run like hell!"
"You can't pick up something that big! You're doing the same thing I am! You're throwing your life away!"
"I'm going to save us!"
The worm came down only a few feet away. The ground broke and cracked, and she was shoved to her knees from the force. Paragon was knocked over fully, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, ready to at least try and hold it back-
"Got you!" Snowdawn crashed into her just in time, wrapping an arm around her and Paragon. "Fuck you, worm!"
She felt a wave of intense cold. More than anything she had ever felt before at the spot Snowdawn was touching. Everything seemed to stop, and the next second, suddenly, she and Paragon weren't beneath the worm. They stood next to Myth now, dozens of meters away from the giant monster, and still likely in the blast zone. Where they had been standing, a large ice statue of Snowdawn stood, flipping the worm off.
The worm crashed into the statue, shattered it into millions of pieces, and blew through the ground as it sank back into the sand. "We're still alive?" The spot Snowdawn held was covered in a thick block of ice, and she couldn't help but shiver. Paragon also groaned and shook, feeling the ice around her wrist. She generated some of her fire, quickly melting the ice around both of them, while Destiny healed any major damage they might have gotten.
Snowdawn was on his knees next to them, breathing heavily. All his ice and snow were gone, and he was panting badly. That weird fast-teleporting move he could pull off now was clearly taking its toll on him. He looked like he was about to vomit. "I- I need to rest for a few moments." He groaned. "I won't have any powers for a bit. I never pushed my new move that far before-"
A red beam of blood slammed into the ground next to them, causing them all to scramble and duck back down as the beams started back up again.
"We don't have a few moments." Myth stated calmly. The ground was shaking and breaking once again as the massive worm began to rise back up behind them as well. "Cinder. Take Snowdawn and Paragon and get out here. If you can try and grab Whisper and run. Don't bother fighting the Wandering Coin if you can avoid it."
"Right." She hooked one arm around Snowdawn's waist and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Her second hand went around Paragon, and she held the hero under her arm.
"Do you seriously have to hold me like this?" Paragon snapped.
"Yes." She looked back at Myth, who stared at the giant worm. "What are you going to do, sir?"
"I'm going to kick that monster's ass."
"I don't think that's a good idea..."
"He can do it," Paragon spoke up, nodding her head. "This is the legendary hero Myth. Son of Legend, brother of Fable, former leader of the Sub Enforcers, former recruit for the Enforcers, and the man that not only saved my sister during the Beast attack but fought the Beast itself."
"Seriously? I know Myth is badass and all, but still..." She trailed off. Myth never really got into a lot of serious fights now that she thought about it. The closest battle he had been in was his fight against Polaron.
"Go, Cinder. I'll be right behind you once I deal with this pest." Myth stepped forward, and she nodded and began to run as fast as she could. Myth stared up at the worm as it rose higher and higher. He began to loosen his armor and robes, dropping them and cracking his neck. "It's a good thing we aren't in Oleander. I wouldn't want to destroy my home, after all. How long has it been since I've gotten a chance to use this form? I wonder. I guess the last time I used it was against the Beast." He smirked, and his skin began to bubble and grow as he got bigger. "Get ready. For the first time in two years, I'm about to go all out! Sorry in advance. I can't control this form, so do me a favor and keep 'it' entertained so it leaves my team members alone!"
Massive red scales stabbed out of his flesh. His legs twisted and came undone, becoming hundreds of snakes. Wings wider than the worm grew out of his shoulder blades. His muscles got larger, and he began to get bigger, his shadow twisting and stabbing out. The wind became his to command, and magma dripped down his mouth as his jaw jutted out and jagged teeth formed. Where his eyes should have been now stood the entrance to a small volcano, lava pouring down his face like tears, and each of his fingers grew the head of a dragon as he stared down at the worm.
The worm roared, and Myth screamed right back at it as the two prepared for battle!
Over with the Wandering Coin, Mayor Grove let out a whistle as he watched the two giant monsters begin to fight. "Gonna stay away from that one." The wind twisted and the ground shook as both monsters slammed into the ground and began to sink into it. They were miles away, and yet they could still feel it. "Let's get a move on-"
"Not so fast!" A loud voice announced. The sounds of engines filled the air, and the roaring of cars surrounded them. "It ain't often we get ya city folk that are bright enough to wander on out here, especially not with that damn fancy Super tech like what ya folks got!"
Four cars went in circles around the crash site of the Wandering Coin. Each one was made out of large shards of junk and looked to be glued together. The people that rode on them were barely any better. They wore suits of armor, mostly made of scrap, and carried weapons that would make even Metal Ronin shake his head, due to how much trash had been used to create them.
Wasteland bandits. Many died off in these harsh lands, but some managed to thrive. The majority of bandits were people from Oleander who ran from the city and thought they could live in these lawless parts. Others were Supers who had committed a crime so bad they'd be sent to Nightshade and, out of fear, fled to the Wasteland. After all, Uriel wasn't in the Wasteland.
For many Supers, surviving out here was better than getting unlucky and sharing a cell block with Uriel.
"Hand over ya stuff." One of the bandits yelled out. "Now, before me and my possy up and-"
"Casey."
"On it, boss." Red beams of blood blasted out of Casey's fingers and sliced through the bandits and their cars as if they were made out of butter. Or at least it should have. "Huh?" All the cars were cut to bits, but not a single bandit corpse could be found. "Wow. You're fast."
Cinder touched down a few meters away from the Wandering Coin members. Her arms were filled not only with Paragon and Snowdawn but also with at least eight men. They were screaming, as she had taken a page out of Battery's book and created chains made of fire to wrap around them and get them to safety. They weren't fireproof. She put the fire out, placed Paragon and Snowdawn down, and practically dropped all the men.
"Whisper. We've come to get you. It was kind of dumb running off like that."
Kevin's grip grew tighter around Whisper's waist. "Move an inch, and I pop her-"
His arm was blown off, along with half his body, as Cinder punched the air faster than he could react and used what Wyvern had taught her. The air current easily tore through Kevin and caused Whisper to drop to the ground. The girl turned invisible and quickly got out of sight.
Hannah struck out and fired a wave of bones, but Cinder punched through them easily and twisted her body around just in time to dodge one of Casey's blood beams. Her hair was golden, and her eyes roared with a red fire. "You guys seriously don't stand a chance. I'm already pretty pissed, so try not to make it worse-"
Cinder froze when she saw Wish. The girl rested in the arms of Mr. Brenner. Slowly, Wish's eyes opened, and she stared past Cinder, directly at Paragon.
***
Backup charged forward and raised both his arms. Two large tower shields expanded out of the bands he had around the sleeves of his martial arts uniform. They blocked the barrage of fireballs that Demonica threw at him and allowed him to ram his way into the villain.
Demonica slid back, hissing like a wild animal. She had already transformed, sporting three arms and bat-like wings. Purple fire crackled off her claws, which she stabbed through the air, but the hero blocked them once more and smashed both his shields together. They came undone and folded together, spiraling around one another and forming into a large great axe, which he swung out as hard as he could.
Demonica barely had time to raise two of her arms and block the strike, but the force of it lifted the woman off her feet and slammed her into the wall of the underground parking lot that they were fighting in.
Over with Green Wolf, he twirled his knives and brought them down, but his attack was blocked by a ghostly clone created by Pretty Face.
"You know, there are easier ways to get my autograph than this." Pretty Face taunted. He created another clone and swung it around like a hammer, smashing it into Green Wolf, but the man's kinetic barrier easily blocked it.
"Go to hell. I'd never be caught dead at one of your shows." The villain chuckled. He sent more of his invisible attacks toward Pretty Face, but the hero would constantly block the attacks with waves of clones that formed a wall in front of him, each one a different color.
"Says the guy who comes to my concert every time I host it here." Pretty Face weaved in between the slashes and gave a wink. "Honestly, if you wanted to get my attention, all you had to do was ask, hot stuff." He managed to grab the villain's wrist, and while he couldn't harm the man, he was able to twist the limb and cause Green Wolf to drop his knife.
Green Wolf swung out his other hand, but eight ghostly hands appeared around Pretty Face and stopped the leader of Zoo's arm from moving. More arms began to appear in the air, all pulling the villain into a chokehold and binding him in place.
"Why are you trying to kill me anyway?" Pretty Face asked, stepping away. "I do something to piss you off? I know I've made a bad habit of making people hate me. Don't tell me you're some ex-lover pissed that I didn't stay with some no-named loser."
"Nah. We've never met." Green Wolf's body ignited and exploded with a wave of kinetic energy, destroying all the limbs that were around him and shoving Pretty Face back. He reached into his coat and pulled out another knife, which he twirled around. This one was a large meat cleaver. "I just love killing."
Pretty Face slid back, creating three of his ghosts, which broke his fall and caught him. One of his clones ran at Green Wolf, but it was sliced to ribbons before it even got close.
Green Wolf cocked his head to the side and gave a casual chuckle. He took a step forward, and the entire underground area began to shake violently as he unleashed a wave of powerful kinetic force. "Man, I'm pretty ticked off. You guys all suck. This game is getting boring, and I'm not even getting any good loot or EXP. Why can't we all have a little more fun?"
"Seriously? You've killed countless people and harmed hundreds, and then have the balls to say this is just a bad game that you're not having any fun with." Pretty Face gave a large scowl and sneered at the villain. "I take it back. You aren't so good-looking anymore."
"Now we know that's bullshit." Green Wolf tugged at his collar, and moon walked backwards. "I'm fly as fuck." He ran his fingers over his white coat. "This is the finest leather money can buy. One of a kind. As in, I created it myself after cutting up some dude that turned into a dragon. I got a good collection going on, you know." He opened his coat, revealing rows of knives. Some were made out of metal, and others, disturbingly enough, were forged from bone. "Any guesses if I made the coat after or before I killed the hero? Come to think of it, you used to be on Boy Genius's crew, right? This must be a blast from the past seeing your old party member on me like this."
Pretty Face growled a bit and created dozens of his ghostly hands and arms around himself. "You're dying today. That's a promise. That's the punishment that scum like you deserves."
"If I die, then it means I had fun with the game and met a better player." The energy around Green Wolf grew stronger, and he slashed his knife down. "Will you be able to be that person? Because I, for one, highly doubt it!"
Near the only entrance left standing, Duplicity stood in front of Bad Wolf with her arms folded. "They sure do talk a lot," the young-looking girl said, humming.
Bad Wolf grunted, not moving an inch. Waves of cloud seeped out of her fur and formed large pillars of snow, ice, and water, the only thing keeping this entire area from collapsing and crushing them all. "Y- You'd think that they'd all be smart enough to take the fight outside of this death trap, but I guess that's too good for them." The hero spat out. "You should back them up, Duplicity."
"No can do." The hero said, shaking her head. "If a stray attack comes this way, I'll be the only thing to keep you safe."
"Too bad you did such a bad job!" An arrogant voice announced. Duplicity felt her eyes go wide, and she tried to turn around, but it was too late. Something wrapped tightly around her body, binding her in place. She stared down at the hundreds of large centipede-like bugs that had turned themselves into makeshift ropes. Bad Wolf was about to strike behind her with her clouds, but she froze when she felt the barrel of a gun press against the back of her head. "Way to go, Monkey!"
Standing behind Bad Wolf with his gun trained on the girl, Red Monkey cocked his head to the side lazily. One of his arms was wrapped around Red Ape, who supported the man. Rows of bugs came out of the villain's sleeve, creating the binds that had now formed around Duplicity.
The fighting in the underground parking lot stopped as Backup noticed his two teammates were in trouble. "Red Ape?" Even Green Wolf seemed stunned, staring at the man. "You, of all people, got down here to back me up?"
"How the hell did you get out of Hero Branch custody?" Duplicity asked, cocking her head to the side. "Pantheon knocked you guys out and tied you all up with chains made by Battery. Also, we saw the Hero Branch personally throwing you guys into some vans. You shouldn't have been able to get out of here so soon."
"Oh, that's simple." Moving out from behind, Red Ape White Spider didn't wear her mask. She wanted them all to see her smug look. White Lamb stood next to her. "You guys forgot all about me, didn't you? While all of you were busy fighting, I was on the sidelines, watching the entire thing and getting my webs set up!"
White Spider was a relatively weak teleporter. She couldn't go anywhere she wanted, instead having to spread hundreds of tiny spiders that would all connect with each other and form a web. Once her web was in place, it made it so that anyone inside the location could no longer get out, teleporting them back in if they tried to escape. It had a bit of an issue, though. White Spider had to place herself into the web and also couldn't escape without tearing the entire thing down.
Because everyone was able to come and go as pleased, they had all assumed the villain wasn't in the area or wasn't on standby.
White Spider held her hand up, and five tiny spiders began to slowly drip off of it, connected by her threads. "I can use my babies to see and hear things through them. I didn't bother setting a web up. Instead, I placed them into all the members of Zoo's clothing, and once they were captured, White Lamb and I snuck in and busted them out." Her other arm was a crazy tech gun Avalon had likely built. "It was all too easy to bust them out. You guys didn't even have guards or a hero standing over them."
From behind her, Black Shark and White Cow stepped out, both fully healed after their battle with Myth. Demonica's eyes narrowed. "What of Stone Face and Saw Head?"
"What of them?" White Spider cocked her head to the side. "Those gross monsters aren't on my team. I left them to rot. To hell with those freaks."
Demonica growled and was about to throw a fireball forward, but stopped at the last second when Green Wolf appeared behind her and pressed his knife to the back of her head. "This wasn't part of the deal."
"I lost my part of the deal the moment Avalon stopped teleporting me." Green Wolf shrugged. "As far as I am concerned, the game is broken and in need of some new rules. We're going to pull a triple-A studio and patch this thing into being at least semi-fair." Backup went to take a step, but Green Wolf shook his head. "Nope. You heroes stand still. The first sign of danger, and Monkey blows that puppy's head off." His remark caused Bad Wolf to growl.
Duplicity cocked her head to the side as the bugs around her began to squeeze, getting tighter. She grunted a bit but smirked. "Wow. It's pretty brave of you to call her a puppy, Green Wolf. The only runt of the litter I see is you."
"Most hostages are smart enough to know you shouldn't talk back to the game master." Green Wolf stared the girl down and held Demonica out in front of him as if she were a human shield.
Duplicity giggled a bit. "That's true. But most hostages are in danger. None of us are."
White Spider laughed and raised her gun up. It unfolded, and the barrel of an energy-based weapon popped out. "Honestly, I don't think we should play around with them any longer, Green Wolf. The heroes got a head start. We should kill these fuckers and go after them-"
"Didn't you find it weird?" Duplicity asked casually, leaning her head back to stare at White Spider. "Why did we leave the hostages unguarded? Well, the answer is simple. We didn't. Roulette was watching them."
The sound of a gunshot filled the parking lot, and blood splashed out of White Spider's mouth as her eyes stared down in shock at the massive hole in her gut. Red Monkey pulled the trigger on his gun, but the bullet inside of it flew out the back and exploded, blowing off the man's hand. The sound of a cane tapping on the floor echoed out as Roulette walked forward slowly. He held a rifle, using it as a walking stick, and millions of bullets suddenly blasted out of his coat, flying forward and twisting in ways they shouldn't.
White Cow formed her milk armor and jumped in front of Red Ape and Black Shark in an effort to keep them safe, but the bullets literally twisted and curved around her. Black Shark was downed as one of his legs was nearly blown off. Red Ape yelped and threw his hands into the air.
"I don't want to die! Don't kill me, please, I surrender!" The bullets curved around him and formed together into a strong metal rope that tied him down. "Oh, thank God!"
"I would also like to give up." White Lamb said, dropping to the floor. Seconds later, White Cow crashed to the floor, blood pouring out of her armor as the bullets found small chinks in it. "I guess we lucked out on the fact that Zoo never fought Watch Dogs before this. Looks like we would have never stood a chance. Then again, Roulette was an ex-member of the-"
Green Wolf lazily shoved Demonica out in front of him, and the hail of bullets smashed into the villain's gut, nearly ripping her in half and downing her. The rest of the bullets bounced off of him, unable to harm him. "Well, fuck. There goes my team. God damn it, how is Red Ape still alive? Kill him, too, at least! Hell, I'll do it; keep him still-"
"None of your people are dead." Roulette grunted, stepping forward. He smashed the barrel of his gun down into Red Ape's crotch. "I can control my bullets any way I wish. I've plugged up their wounds and am stopping the bleeding. It won't last for long, though. They have ten minutes at most. Duplicity can heal them or at least stabilize them. If you give up, she'll do it. Now if you have even the smallest hint of sympathy, then-"
"Let them bleed out." Silence filled the room. Green Wolf cocked his head to the side. "If White Spider fucked up this bad and didn't see you coming, then I don't need them. I want it to be slow. You don't mind if I watch, do you? I'd like to see them slowly bleed out all over the place."
"If you were counting on him being human, then I'm afraid your plan was doomed to fail from the start." White Lamb sighed as she rubbed the now-broken screen of her TV. "Though he might not be a monster created by the Emperor, the concept of humanity does not exist in someone like him."
White Spider spat out a glob of blood, clutching at her gut wound. "I- I don't want to d- die- Don't let them kill us, you a- asshole."
"Oh, yeah, 'cause name-calling is going to make me want to save you." Green Wolf snorted.
Duplicity sighed, and the bugs around her caught fire as she began to glow with a white light. She broke out of Red Ape's trap, and dozens of clones of her appeared. They weren't like Pretty Face's, though. They were solid and looked exactly like the young-looking hero. Usually, she had a large goofy grin on her face, but now her looks were twisted into a stare of disgust as she glared at Green Wolf.
Each of the downed Zoo members had a clone placed next to them. The clones touched the injured members, and their wounds began to seal shut and heal. It wasn't like Paragon's healing, though. It was more like Battery's or Victorian's—rough and slow. Limbs were regrown but slightly off. They were smaller or weaker than before, and the bullets were left inside of them. They'd live, though never the same as they used to be. Each of the clones that healed someone broke down and shattered into dust.
Demonica didn't get one. Her own body was healing due to her natural abilities, and her legs were slowly healing up. "What a coward you are." Green Wolf said, placing his boot on the monster's head and shoving it down. Despite his actions, though, he appeared to be talking to the heroes. "You went and healed them anyway. Heroes are so boring and easy to read."
"I wouldn't be cocky if I were you." Pretty Face called out. "We have you surrounded, now."
"Barrier." Green Wolf lazily threw his knife in the air. "No one can touch me. None of you guys are energy-based users."
"I wasn't the child of a Lord or anything like that." Duplicity hummed. "Despite that, though, somewhere in my blood flows the energy of a Lord. Maybe it was a great grandma, maybe a great grampa, or maybe even a great, great, great one. I honestly don't know. What I do know is that I got lucky and got powers from both my mom and dad. My dad had the ability to fuse with things, while my mom had the power to create energy-based clones' kind of like Pretty Face."
"Neat story. So what?" Green Wolf asked.
Duplicity took a step forward, and the villain swung out his weapon. The girl's body was nearly torn in two, but one of her clones quickly grabbed onto her, and they shattered into dust as she was connected back together. "There's a limit to how many clones I can make." The girl shrugged. "I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a million, maybe a billion, or even a trillion. I just know I have a limit. When a clone dies, it never comes back. Thanks to my mom, I can make them. It's also thanks to my dad that I can use them to sort of heal people. See, they can fuse with things. If a person is injured, I can use the clone to patch them up, though it destroys the clone."
"So, if I kill you enough times, you're saying that you'll stay dead?" Green Wolf chuckled. "Seems like a smart idea to tell me this."
"Guys like you are always a pain. The kind that constantly blocks physical attacks." Duplicity gave a sly grin. "Thankfully, I'm the perfect counter to assholes like you." Nearly twenty clones appeared behind the girl, and they all linked arms.
Green Wolf found himself taking a step back as a massive, brilliant light filled the rooms. All the clones seemed to be pulled into one another, and the glow got brighter. Then, in a bright, blinding flash, it died down. He found himself raising an eyebrow at what he saw.
Duplicity had turned pure white. She was glowing—her skin, hair, eyes, everything. It was like a solid white light had taken shape. She was bigger as well. She was no longer a little girl; instead, she had taken on her true form, now looking like an adult woman. "Talk about a growth spurt-" Blood dripped down Green Wolf's mouth as he gasped. In an instant, Duplicity was in front of him, ramming her fist into his stomach.
"You talk way too much." She hummed.
Green Wolf was hit so hard that he smashed through the roof above and the layers of dirt, slamming down into the stadium floor from up above. Duplicity floated up, phasing through the dirt and folding her arms over her chest as she hovered above the villain, no longer restricted by the world.
She had become pure energy given life, merged and fused with dozens of other copies of herself. In other words, the perfect thing to bypass Green Wolf's shield. Despite his injury, Green Wolf's laughter filled the air as he stood up and threw off his white coat. On his back, a long sword was hidden, and he drew it, the blade extending and glowing. More tech created by Avalon.
"Alright! Now this is what I call a boss fight! Let's make this into my best game yet!"
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