Chapitre 90: The Wild Wastelands

Mayor Grove let out a quiet groan as he felt his eyes slowly open. "You okay?" Mr. Brenner asked.

Grove shot a glare at his bodyguard and shook his head. "No. I was tased and knocked out. Of course, I'm not okay." He hissed. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease the tension that had started to build up in it. "So, you were able to activate the robot and get us out of here."

It had started off as his limo. A car that Doc had built using various supplies from other Mental-based Supers. His car was his ultimate weapon, loaded with powerful guns and able to fly and even transform into a large robot. It also used technology that had been created by one of the Pallet Boys. Those two fodder heroes had a way of doing the impossible. This tech allowed them to cause the cockpit of the robot to be much bigger than it should have been.

When the car transformed into its robot form, its interior nearly tripled in size, allowing for a wide-open space within the machine. It was a spacious room filled with dozens of chairs, a few beds, a bathroom, a fridge, and even a mini kitchen—like a small house that he could use in case he wasn't able to make it back to his base beneath the manor.

"Where are we heading?" He questioned his bodyguard. Mr. Brenner was seated in front of the wheel. Dozens of new buttons and levers had formed out of the car, which the man was using to steer his giant robot. "I was going to take us to the base-"

"No." The mayor shook his head. He looked around the large cockpit and frowned. The monitor showed the outside of the robot, and at the moment, they were quickly flying away from the stadium. They weren't very stealthy, and soon it would be all over the news. "I don't want them finding my base."

"They already know who you are. I'm pretty sure they'll tear that place apart and find it sooner or later." The man grumbled. "Besides, the Supers are still there since you decided not to bring them along. We'll need them if we want to even stand a chance. I'm taking a great risk doing this. I might never be able to see my son again. The reason I worked for you was because you promised you could keep him safe from that monster. Don't forget."

"That's true, but..." Grove trailed off. He had a strange gut feeling. Something was telling him to not relax. Lady Luck was always on his side, so he often went with his gut feeling. His eyes roamed over the cockpit once more. "Something is off-"

The back of the room glowed with a bright blue light, and in a flash, two large glass-like boxes suddenly appeared. It caused their ride to shake and wobble. It didn't stop there either, as seconds later, Doc appeared along with two other people cloaked in red robes. Both glass boxes also contained two people. One of them was Kevin, whose eyes roamed around. The other was Wish. The girl didn't move an inch, and it was hard to tell if she was even alive; both her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"How did you guys get here?" Mr. Brenner asked with wide eyes. "Also, you're late!"

Doc brushed his coat off and walked forward, swinging his cane around. "We used a gate." The blind man explained. "Below the manor, inside Grove's basement, we have our main base, where I was slowly restoring Kevin." He trapped his cane on the glass box containing the boy. "That realm has two gates. One is the basement, and the other is here. It's so if the mayor is ever attacked, he can hop through the gate inside this machine I built and escape, then he has a door directly back to his manner."

"Why didn't I know about it?" Brenner asked, frowning.

"We didn't trust you with it." Doc chuckled. "Fear not, though you know now." The officer just grumbled as he shook his head. "So, Mr. Grove, or should I call you Sunshine? What do we do now?"

"That's a good question." The mayor stood up and walked over to the glass container that held the body of Wish. "The Pod is still at our base?"

"Correct. I couldn't bring it with us." The Doc nodded.

The man sighed. "Very well. We got it from Avalon after we stole it away. It took me years to finally get the Lord of Life on my side. With her power, my goal is actually within reach. A goal that had been created by someone before me once. I think it's time we meet someone." His fingers brushed the glass, and he felt his nails dig into it slightly.

Doc let out a low hum. "Are we going to go meet him, finally?"

"Meet who?" Brenner questioned.

Grove's eyes traced over the body of Wish. "This machine. The thing that allowed us to break down people's bodies and turn them into monsters. They, in a way, mimic the Emperor's powers. We didn't just find them. I was gifted them by a man. That same man also happened to give me both Wish and Doc here. All for the sake of my plan. However, he made me promise one thing. Should the day come that I am found out, he requested that I bring him his gift back." It was time he gave his weapon back.

"So instead of your base, we're going to go meet with this man, right?" The police officer nodded, putting it together. "I doubt this man is in Oleander, though. He'd have to be someone important to have all this stuff. He'd likely be a member of the Emperor's army, meaning he'd be an Organization member. That means he's in Rose City, right?"

Brenner shook his head. "No. The place we're going isn't in any city."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Grove turned back and pointed at the monitor, watching as they passed over the ocean and began to head out of Oleander City. "We're heading to the Wastelands! If Lady Luck is truly on my side, then we'll win this battle, and my dream will come true!"

Unknown to all, however, someone else watched them closely. Unseen, Whisper folded her arms and watched the Paths change and twist. They formed shapes she had never seen before. She had debated zapping the driver and crashing the car the moment they were all in. After all, the entire reason she had stowed away was so she could find their base, but now they weren't even heading in the right direction. She didn't do this, though.

It was all because of one simple reason.

The Paths began to turn blank.

For the first time since she could recall, the future was going to be a mystery to her. And that really excited her...

***

A Few Moments Earlier...

"Did she actually let herself be taken?" Cinder sighed, folding her arms as she followed the others out of the stadium. Down below, Green Wolf and Demonica would be fighting the members of Watch Dogs.

"I doubt they know she is there." Myth hummed as he stared down at his phone. He was getting a string of numbers and locations from the unseen hero, who was constantly sending her location to them.

Kyle's father had gotten away and, in the commotion, picked the mayor up in that strange robot they had. Whisper had decided that she would take it upon herself to discover where the Wandering Coin's base was. Now, they were stuck going after her.

"Are we going to go after her?" Battery asked. They had made it outside, where the crowd of people were still being taken to safety by dozens of Hero Branch members. For a moment, she wondered if her mom was among them. Whisper had gotten the woman out when trouble had gone down. She'd have to send a text or something later.

"Of course, we have to go after her." Snowdawn snorted. His ice armor had reformed, and he clapped Battery on the back. "She's part of our team, after all-"

"She's a dumbass." Battery's words caused them all to fall silent.

"Don't be like that." She said, wincing a bit.

"She shouldn't have just jumped onto their ride." Battery spat out, shaking his head. "If they find out she's there or decide to go through a gate to another world, then what happens? Sure, she might be able to handle herself if it's just those two, but what happens when they get to Wish?"

"Wish is dead." Myth grunted. "You and I killed her ourselves."

"You're a fool, or an idiot, if you think someone like Wish will actually stay dead." Battery grunted. "Besides, if she really wanted to help us capture the mayor, she could have knocked those two out by now. Instead, she is trying to get to their base."

"It's so we could find the others. And if Wish is alive, we need to take her down-"

"Our job is to take down Fairy Queen right now. That's what we told Boy Genius. Instead of doing that, though, we're leaving Green Wolf behind, as well as the place Fairy Queen should come to, so we can chase down the mayor and hope they take us to their base. This plan is stupid." The man said flatly.

She awkwardly shifted on her feet as Battery and Myth stared each other down. It felt kind of like watching someone's parents fight. She had never seen her mom or dad yell at one another, but when she went to Armin's house as a kid, sometimes his parents would argue back when his mom was still... She always felt guilty about which side she should take or if she should say anything or not.

She cleared her throat, getting the attention back on her. She stood her ground and folded her arms. "I think Myth needs to do this. He seemed off when he saw the mayor. No offense, Myth. I get it, though. If Lucifer were here, I'd want to do the same—drop everything and go after him."

"You're supposed to be on my side." Battery grumbled.

"Sorry." She chuckled. "I get what you're saying. I even agree with it. We shouldn't just drop the Fairy Queen job, and Whisper could have gone about this in a better way. I also think Myth has a right to have us go after Sunshine." For a moment, her thoughts went back to Wish. "If 'she' really is at their base, I'd like to stop her for good this time. I'm running out of time." She needed someone else to have that vast power. Her father and Mr. Larison were both nearing the end of the road.

Snowdawn rubbed the back of his neck. "How are we going to get to where Whisper is, anyway? That thing was flying, and besides Myth, none of us can do that."

Myth turned and stared out at the parking lot where Whisper's van rested. "Get in. I'll handle getting us there."

"Uh oh..." Snowdawn made a face and sighed. "This is going to be a rough flight, isn't it?"

Before they could get into the van, a quiet buzzing filled the air. Battery reached into his belt, pulled out his phone, and answered it. "Hello-"

"When you told us Harrison had the sword, you failed to mention the fact that Fairy Queen would also be here!" The sound of intense battle came out of his speakers, along with the very pissed-off voice of Ocean Empress. "I'm not one of the Enforcers that can just casually fight a member of the Organization! Also, there are two of them! Golden God is here, too, and up where Paragon is-"

Battery hung up and placed his phone back on his belt. "Well. That's not good."

"Damn it!" Myth hissed. "I thought Fairy Queen would show up here. I never imagined she'd stay behind and back up Avalon."

"Well, at least we know for sure he's in on it." Snowdawn bit his lip. "If she's saving Avalon, that means he's part of this group also."

"We have to help them." She said quickly. "Poseidon and Paragon are both in trouble if they're both there!"

"That would mean leaving Whisper behind. I don't like what she did, but we still have to help her," Battery said.

She felt her nails dig into her palm as she gritted her teeth. "I'll go myself, then-"

Battery reached out and flicked her on the helmet. "Don't be stupid." The speedster turned to Myth. "You think you can handle it without me?"

"We'll manage somehow." Myth nodded.

Battery nodded. "In that case, I'll head out."

"What?" She questioned.

"I'm going to go back up Ocean Empress and deal with Fairy Queen, myself." Battery explained. "Besides, I'd like to settle an old score with that winged bitch. As soon as I'm done, I'll run over and help you guys out. Even if you appear on the other side of the planet or in a pocket realm, I can grab Avalon's and make my way over."

"Should I come, too?" She asked.

Battery shook his head as sparks of gold began to seep through the lines on his costume. "It's faster if I go by myself. Also, Whisper needs you guys more."

"Stay safe," Snowdawn said.

"Now that's just asking too much. Don't worry though. I'm stronger than Fairy Queen." Battery smirked and then began to take off at a fast pace. He ran, getting quicker, and the gold got brighter until, in a flash, he zipped away at insane speeds.

She watched him leave before slowly turning away. "I don't like separating like this." She sighed. Despite that, she got into the back of the van. Snowdawn took a seat up front. As for Myth, he walked in front of the vehicle, and his body began to change. "One day I really want the ability to fly. It would make things like this way easier."

Myth's body grew in size, with claws forming out of his fingers and wings jutting out of his back. His body became that of a lion, while his head shifted into that of an eagle. He let out a loud cry, and his wings allowed him to take flight, and he landed on top of the roof of the van. Inside the car, Hope cringed as she heard the metal rip and tear as his claws stabbed into it. Snowdawn made a face and quickly buckled up as the vehicle was raised off the ground.

She reached up and grabbed onto anything she could, feeling her stomach go back and forth from the rocking of the now-flying car. "Somehow, this is much worse than Backup's boat."

"Please learn how to fly. Quickly." Snowdawn groaned.

"How would that help you?"

"You'd carry me!"

"Like hell, I would."

"Hey, no fair! Didn't you carry Paragon when you and she did that combo move?"

"That definitely wasn't flying, and I can promise you she didn't enjoy it."

"How is it that you were able to pick up a girl before me?" Snowdawn pouted.

"I'm just cuter." She shrugged. "Deal with it."

Myth's voice pierced the air as he let out a loud cry. Just like when he was in his bull or lion form, his voice was louder and rougher, causing the metal of the van to shake as he took flight. "Not good. Whisper's texts have me worried." His tail held onto his phone, wrapped around it, and his bird head had twisted all the way around like some sort of owl, allowing him to still follow the instructions Whisper was sending him.

"How can this day get any worse?" Snowdawn called out, poking his head out of the window.

"They aren't heading to the mayor's manner." Myth explained. "Part of me thought the base would be there. Or maybe the base is there, but that isn't the direction in which they are heading."

She rolled her own window down and stared down at the city below, feeling her unease grow. She really wished Battery had stayed. They could have used his help. Myth had taken them above the bridge—the one that connected them to Lillian, the city Ocean Empress took care of. He wasn't heading toward the city, though. He flew over the bridge and began to head out towards the sea that rested down below.

She stared down at the water, her lips turning into a thin line. Her father had worked on boats. That was before she had been born. She never really liked the water, though.

They weren't heading to any city, and they weren't heading to Nightshade. In the distance, the land past the ocean looked small.

"The Wastelands." Myth's voice came out like a low growl. "They're heading deep into the Wasteland."

Across the sea, the Wasteland stood. It was near Oleander and Lillian. So close that they often had to deal with the threats that crossed the sea and reached them. The Wasteland was given its name because it was basically a hostile land where only death awaited. It was pretty much agreed that it was cursed. The Emperor and Full Monarch had started their clash in a city that used to stand there. That city was blown to bits. Later, it was rebuilt, but then the Beast came down and ruined it again, leaving the land scarred. After that, a bunch of giant monsters moved in, Lucifer held a Murder Game there, and a bunch of other villains torched the place. Now the land was nothing more than a vast stretch of harsh sand that had no chance of recovering.

"Why would the mayor head this way?" She asked.

It didn't actually take them that long to reach the Wasteland. Oleander was a beach city, and the Wasteland was only a few miles away. Close enough, you could get there by boat.

The Wasteland itself didn't actually look that bad. It was like an endless desert that went on in all directions, with a few buildings poking out that still stood tall from the old world. The air smelled foul, and water started to drip down Snowdawn's body as the sky above the Wasteland had dozens of dark patches, places where the ozone had taken its share of damage, cranking the nearby heat to unbearable levels. Even she was having a hard time catching her breath.

"Well, if you're a bad guy, this would be a good spot to place your base, wouldn't it?" Snowdawn asked.

"No." She shook her head. "It wouldn't. All the giant monsters of the Emperor's army live out here, and there's got to be dozens of bandits or something if video games taught me anything. The base would have to be deep into the Wastelands, and they'd have to constantly go back and forth. It would be hard to constantly sneak in and out of the city. Besides, they have those mini-pocket universes, don't they?" She frowned. "They had a bunch of them all over the place, or at least that's the feeling I got. They know we have a way of getting into one, so maybe that's why they're doing this, but if that's the case, this can't be their main base. All their stations are in Oleander, and as far as we know, they never bothered messing with any other city. It doesn't make sense that they'd just leave and head out to this danger zone."

The ground below constantly belched smoke, and small fires were always crawling along the ground as beams of sunlight burned from above. She prayed Myth could hold out, but he seemed fine, shrugging off the heat beams and keeping his form over the van as he kept flying.

They were moving fast, and already up ahead, she saw the robot, or at least what was left of the machine. It was torn in two from her earlier attack, and the metal on it still had small plumes of fire that rose off of it. The thing was still far away, just a tiny, small dot in the distance, but they were moving faster than it and would soon catch up. Myth slowed down and went lower to the ground to avoid being seen. They had done this to find out where the Wandering Coin's main base was, but now they were likely going to discover something else.

"What are they going after?" She folded her arms and moved up to the front seat, getting in the passenger seat next to Snowdawn, who sat behind the wheel. She felt her enhanced senses build up. Even with how good they were, there was no way she could hear what was being said in the machine, but her eyes did improve, allowing her to see further than she normally would be able to. She always loved using this power to stare up at the sky at night. Sometimes, it allowed her to see cracks in the moon, the spots where Full Monarch had fought the Emperor; other times, she would catch rare glimpses of the Victorian up in space. Right now, though, it allowed her to see past the tiny dot that was the machine and see further past the lands of the Wasteland. "That doesn't look good."

"What?" Snowdawn asked, turning to look at her.

The Wasteland stretched every way she looked. Just an endless wave of sand that was slowly twisting into shards of hot glass from the sun beams. Every now and then, she would watch the ground break and twist as something beneath it moved or twitched, likely one of the giant monsters created by the Emperor. She even spotted a few large, armored trucks made out of junk metal that drove through the desert. Basically, sand bandits. It was something past the robot that was up ahead, though, that had her nervous.

A large metal structure was stabbing out of the ground. It was circular and came out like a large tower. Half of it was buried in the sand, and it was covered in thick rust. A large vault door hung in the center of it, though it had been torn away. It looked like the place where a Super would keep a bunch of their tech and was clearly unnatural. It was nearly three miles away from the flying robot, and they were almost two miles behind the robot.

If she were to make a bet, she'd say that's where they were headed. That tower was most likely something used by heroes or villains in the war with the Emperor. Either that or it was made before the Emperor and was something to stop the Beast. "Big ass tower ahead of us. Might be a vault filled with Super tech."

"Bandits would take all of it, though, wouldn't they?" Snowdawn asked, cocking his head to the side. "Also, if they really had such amazing tech, wouldn't they just bring that into Oleander and beat us? What could they have that would be so big of a trump card they'd run out here like this and leave Oleander behind?"

"Maybe it's a gate to another pocket realm that they have." Myth grunted out from above. "If they controlled it, no bandits would be able to mess with it since the gate wouldn't let them in, and if it's on the building itself or massive, they wouldn't be able to move it, so they'd have to come out this way."

"That still wouldn't explain how no one ever saw them coming out before," she said, shaking her head. Their base has to be somewhere in Oleander. Whatever this thing is that they're heading to, it has to be something else. I don't know what, but it must be something they felt they either didn't need until this point or was so dangerous they didn't want to risk it."

"Ah, this makes my head hurt!" Snowdawn groaned. "I wish things would just be simple! Why don't we just speed up and take them out? From this distance, you could snipe them down. If they aren't heading to a secret base, we have no reason to follow them."

"That's true." She nodded. "We could just knock that box out of the sky and then come back to this place later and check it out-" Her enhanced senses allowed her to hear it. A familiar 'popping' sound. The same Green Wolf always made. Someone was using the sword and teleporting towards them. There was no way Battery would have gotten his hands on it this quickly. "Guys! I think we have trouble! Someone is about to-"

In a flash, she saw red hair, and her head turned just in time as a sword almost stabbed into her, going through the seat she was in. "Crap! Sorry, Cinder!" A familiar voice spoke, followed closely by a bird cry.

She didn't have time to speak as she felt someone simply appear in her lap, and she suddenly became aware of how cramped it was to have three people sitting up front.

The girl in her lap wore a white lab coat and a familiar goofy mask. On her shoulder, Destiny rested.

"Paragon! What are you doing here?" She asked, baffled.

The blind girl winced a bit, trying to move away from the flame-based hero, only to quickly find out she had picked the worst spot to teleport in: she was enclosed in a cramped car. "It's kind of a long story..."

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Chapitre 91: Dunes

"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.

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