章節 38: You’re Dead
Shortly after the battle between Green Wolf, Battery, and Cinder...
Harrison Avalon rested in his chair, looking around his office. His main base was in Rose City, where it was a lot bigger and more open. Oleander was still nice, though. The office was clean, with a pristine white floor and walls adorned with an abundance of paintings from many of history's most renowned artists.
His favorite was called 'The Final Battle,' which depicted Full Monarch in his final battle with the Emperor. Sadly, there was only a single copy of that piece, and he made sure to keep it safe in his base in Rose.
He opened his computer, quickly monitoring a few of the various robots he had working in the building. Avalon Industries had few actual people who worked for the company. Over ninety percent of his buildings were run by his robots. It was his specialty, after all. The last time he actually bothered to build something himself was nearly five years ago.
Content with all the readings he was getting, he clicked a button and changed the monitor to a video game that involved mining blocks.
'Warp me home.'
Avalon felt his pocket twitch, and a gray hand floated out of it and into the air. It snapped its fingers, and the hand suddenly glowed with a bright blue light before it shimmered out. Two figures appeared in thin air out of the strange energy.
"You know," Harrison said, continuing to play his game. "Using Story Maker like that is a bad idea. If the heroes figure out where you got that tech from, then the Victorian would tear Oleander apart, looking for the both of us. All it takes is one hero who can sense energy when you do that, and boom. Entire plan, gone."
Green Wolf snorted, dropping White Lamb on the hard floor. The girl hit it headfirst and groaned, and he placed his boot on her gut. "Do me a solid and fix this thing up for me. She took a strong punch to the face by some brat with super strength." He kicked the girl across the room, and she crashed into a wall, slumping. Hands were already beginning to swarm the girl, fixing her with medical supplies as best they could. Green Wolf began to stalk around the office. "I saw you on TV."
"Did you like it?" Harrison asked. His eyes followed the villain closely.
"No. That other guy took all the glory."
"Yeah. I was bummed a little."
"I met the fire girl. The one that took Red Ape out."
"Oh yeah?"
"She isn't as fun as I thought. If she struggled to beat someone like White Lamb, then she's just low-level trash." The wolf-masked man complained. Green Wolf walked slowly over to one of Avalon's curiosities, resting in the corner of the Oleander office. It was an orb, one made out of a metal he had never seen before. From what Avalon told him, it was the pod that created Poseidon. One of four. His hand lightly brushed the orb, the blue light seemingly shining from the metal. "That's okay. Even if the fire girl is boring, I think I found someone else to play with."
"That's good." Harrison reached up just in time to catch the thing the villain threw at him. "What's this?" It was a glass vial filled with orange liquid.
"I destroyed the other samples. I want you to let me know what that is made of. I plan on hunting the leader of the Coins."
Harrison sighed, slumping his head. He hated work. "Yeah. I'll get to it sometime, I guess."
Sometimes he wondered if it would have been better to simply work with the heroes. Then again, if they found out the connection this latest threat had to the Emperor as well as Paragon, he figured it wouldn't have gone so well.
So for just a bit longer, he would work from the shadows. That was what he had been created for, after all.
It was all for the greater good.
***
"Hey! Are you even listening?"
Polaron shut his book and let out a loud sigh that echoed through his helmet. "I don't listen to barnyard animals." The villain stared out the window of the van. The leader of the Bad Timers was having a very bad time indeed.
"Shit, that's cold." Black Crow let out a chuckle. "Maybe you freaks aren't so bad after all. I give White Spider a lot of crap for being useless, but this might have been one of the best ideas she has had yet. Maybe we should team up more-"
Black Crow was cut off when he felt a clawed hand at his throat. "Respect the boss." Demonica hissed from the back seat. "Say another word to him, and I will tear out your throat."
Black Crow smirked underneath his mask. "You going to let her talk to me like that, Panda?"
In the very back, a large man in a blood-red suit rested. He stood at nearly twelve feet tall and was slumped down in a ball-like pose so as not to hit the roof. He wore a red cartoon panda mask. His voice boomed out and caused the entire van to shake. "Don't care, Crow. Minding my own business. Get yourself out of this mess."
"It is almost time." A hissing voice came from the seat next to Demonica. Ears was a man covered in radios and cell phones that seemed to have been all stitched together into a brown cloak he wore. Ear wax dripped from several cuts in the cloak, and the sound of a phone buzzing seemed to always come from him. "I can hear our agent reach the mall now. As soon as he says the phrase, I will send us all in."
"Thank you, Ears." Demonica nodded.
"So that's how you guys do it." Black Crow hummed. "You use him to listen in, and he sends you guys in."
"I told you to stop speaking." Demonica growled.
Crow just rolled his eyes and pulled the van over the side of the road. They were in the middle of Oleander City. It didn't really matter where he stopped. "Whatever. We're here."
"Looks like I'm up next." Sitting in the back next to Red Panda was another member of the Bad Timers. Ghost wore a skintight white suit that covered him from head to toe and showed nothing. No face, eyes, or anything. In fact, he didn't even seem to be breathing. He climbed out of the back of the van and began to walk down the street. "I'll catch up with you guys at the mall."
"Right." Black Crow gave a thumbs up to his new ally and started the van back up. As he drove, he couldn't help but give a smirk when he saw, in the mirror, a massive explosion go off, followed by the sound of screaming, as Ghost started what would be the first of many massacres. "So, do we even know what the guy we are looking for looks like?"
"Not a clue." Polaron sighed. "Just kill everyone and see which one comes back from the dead. That will be the healer we're looking for. She should also have a connection to Paragon."
"It's time." Ears' voice caused them all to go silent. The man quickly lifted his hand up. "Go." He snapped, and the van was filled with a glowing light. Then, in a flash, everyone but Ears vanished, leaving the man as the only person left in the van. Slowly, the villain climbed into the driver's seat and turned the radio off, a twisted smile coming onto his face as his enhanced senses allowed him to hear every cry of pain Ghost caused with his explosions.
Meanwhile, in the mall, Snowdawn walked and bit into his corndog. "Looks like things have settled down now that everyone got a chance to get some pictures with heroes." His lower mouth had been cleared away of snow, but the rest of his body was well hidden.
"You were pretty popular." Whisper giggled. "I didn't even get a single request. I don't think Cinder did either. Battery got a few, but the rest went to you and Myth, for sure."
"Yeah, I'm pretty cool." Snowdawn winked. "Guess you can say I'm-" He was stopped when Whisper held her hand out in front of him. "Something wrong? I was just about to make a cool pun. Get it? Cool-"
"We need to warn Money Tree." Snowdawn instantly grew serious when he heard the fear in Whisper's voice. "This is bad!"
The mall was filled with people who walked back and forth, shopping or taking a peek at the heroes. A man suddenly stood up on a bench and screamed out as loud as he could. "Warp them here, Ears!"
***
She acted instantly. Her hand came out towards the window, and before any of the villains could think about stopping her, she blasted the wall to pieces. She expected them to give chase or something, but they didn't. Instead, they watched her.
That creeped her out a little, but she didn't have time to consider her options. She grabbed onto Paragon and jumped out of the window, using her super jump to send herself flying towards the other side of the parking lot.
"Now, now. No leaving the game so soon." She felt a weird sensation, and right before she passed over the road, she was suddenly standing back in the hospital hallway, still holding Paragon. "Stay put and play the game." She felt her head rattle as a voice seemingly spoke to her. It wasn't real, though; it held no echo or anything like that; it was rather as if it were appearing directly in her head.
"Damn it." Paragon cursed. "There's a teleporter stopping us from leaving. Likely the same one that took everyone in the hospital. If they can use their power without touching us, then we're in huge trouble."
"Yeah." She winced. "Looks like if we want to get out of here, we'll have to take whoever that person is out."
"I don't know if you're just stupid or forgot, but we're also standing in your way." Intake smirked. "You'll have to get through us if you want to get out of here."
Red Ape wasn't a strong person. The man had a mental power that allowed him to create tech that could improve animals and mutate them. As it stood, though, he didn't have any animals with him at the moment. She had already destroyed his hands, leaving just that stupid laser helmet. A villain whose power was so useless, he ditched it in favor of using tech other mental users created. She was pretty confident she could beat him.
She didn't know a lot about Intake. He wasn't a small-time bad guy, but he wasn't massive either. He usually worked alone and hated being in the Bad Timers. Mr. Larison had seemed confident they could beat him when she first fought him, and that was before she got better with her powers, so she decided it would possibly be a fifty-fifty on him.
That left just Mars King. The second-strongest member of the Bad Timers, a powerhouse that could control all the cells in his body and morph them, he fought big-shot heroes every day and walked away. The biggest threat in the hospital cracked his knuckles. Only an Enforcer member, or someone like Battery or Poseidon, could stop a threat like Mars King by themselves.
"I don't suppose you actually have a plan?" Paragon asked.
"I'm thinking." She muttered. On one side, Mars King stood, as did Intake. Behind her and Paragon, Red Ape guarded the rear. The two villains were a few meters away, while Red Ape was on the other side of the hallway, guarding the exit. It would be easy to bum rush him and take him out, but his bubble would block the hallway off fully, and if she wasn't fast enough, Mars King would easily catch up to her. That or he would simply be able to grab Paragon.
She had an idea—one that she wouldn't call good.
"What are you standing around for?" Intake said from behind Mars King. "Enough with this stalling."
Mars King let out a laugh and began to step forward. He was four meters away, then three, then-
"Sorry about this, in advance." She said, giving a grin.
"What's your plan-" Paragon was cut off as Cinder raised her hands up, pointing them down either side of the hallway, one at Red Ape and one at Mars King.
She felt her fire build up, and the blast ignited in all directions away from her and Paragon. If they really did take everyone in the hospital like they were claiming, then she didn't need to hold back. Red Ape panicked and turned his bubble on to its full power, causing it to fill his side of the hallway and keep him safe. Mars King and Intake both let out growls of pain as the fire washed over them. Intake's skin cracked and melted, but he shrugged most of the damage off, while Mars King's skin began to put itself back together.
She wasted no time after that. She still couldn't fly. After seeing Demonica do it, she had toyed around with the idea of blasting through the air as a way to fly, but it didn't work out well. She wasn't nearly strong enough to keep up long streams of fire for more than a few seconds, and she had almost zero control. It was good for getting a massive jump boost, though. One that she used.
She easily picked up Paragon by the waist with one arm and, in a single heartbeat, blasted down the hallway towards Red Ape. His bubble was in the way, and that was just what she needed to slow down. She had seen Mr. Larison do something similar to this in his fight with Green Wolf. She spun her body around midair and allowed her feet to land on the energy shield, using it like a wall. Without wasting any energy, she used the force to kick off of the bubble, blasting down the other side of the hallway even faster.
"I will kill-" Mars King never got to finish as she reached him and spun again, kicking him in the gut with all that force, and as soon as her leg made contact, the bottom of it erupted in a massive blast.
She had basically just turned herself into a massive human-sized bullet! Every window that was left exploded in a hail of glass, and the force of the attack literally picked Mars King up and hurled him down the hallway, where he smashed into Intake, the two of them hitting the wall so hard they broke through it and began to free fall out of the hospital.
"Never do something like that again!" Paragon yelled, getting out of her arms. The girl's legs wobbled, and the hero nearly collapsed. "I don't have super durability; that bouncing isn't good for me!"
"Sorry!"
Red Ape screamed some curses out, firing a beam from his helmet towards them, which she ducked under. "Same helmet, so I bet it has the same flaw, right?" She kicked off the ground, shaking the hallway and causing Red Ape to stumble. He let out a fearful squeak as she flashed over to him with super speed and grabbed his arm before he could twist the knob.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's chill out and just-"
She twisted her body, lifting him up with ease, and then she threw him out of the hospital! He went flying and screamed in pure terror! Right when he hit the property line, though, he vanished. Literally blinking out of existence. The next thing she knew, he was back in front of her, back on his feet. It would seem whatever affected her, and Paragon did the same to him. The villains also couldn't leave the property line.
"Oh, thank God-" He changed his settings just in time as her fist crashed into his helmet, and his bubble appeared. "Haha-" She punched again and again, pushing him back and causing his eyes to widen. She ignored the pain in her hands, delivering blow after blow. "Don't just stay down there! Intake, Mars King! Save me, you assholes! Either that or come down and save me, Spider!"
"Cinder, the two villains are getting back up." Paragon shouted. "They'll be back on us any second."
She gritted her teeth and moved away from Red Ape. She wouldn't be able to get his bubble down in time before the other two reached her again. She hurled a bolt of fire back towards him, making sure he didn't get any ideas. "Sorry, Paragon, but we don't have time."
"Yeah, I know." The girl sighed in defeat when she was picked up once more. Red Ape didn't give chase. He knew he wouldn't win a one-on-one and instead backed down his side of the hallway, heading for the stairs.
She took off towards the massive hole she created. She knew she wouldn't be able to get too far, but this hallway was a bad spot. On top of that, she had a limited amount of energy, and it was very likely this group had more members somewhere if they were able to teleport every person out of the hospital. As long as that teleporter was here then-
"Hey, wait a second. If they can teleport, then why didn't they just..." She frowned.
"Uh, I don't think you have time to stop and think." Paragon growled. Down below, Intake and Mars King were already getting back up.
She set Paragon down and looked at the hero. "I want to try something. Do you trust me?"
"I don't think I have a choice." Paragon reasoned and folded her arms. "But if you're going to do your plan, then I want to try mine out."
"You have a plan?"
"Yeah, but I'm going to need you to leave me here."
"That sort of defeats the purpose of me saving you."
She couldn't see it, but she could tell Paragon had a sly grin on her face. From the little of the girl's appearance she had been able to see, she guessed the girl was the kind to get devious ideas. "You focus on taking that teleporter down. I'm going to take Mars King."
"What! He'll kill you!" She argued, shaking her head. "He can rip me apart, and in case you forgot, I'm mega durable!"
"He won't kill me. They said they need me alive. Besides, if you're really worried, then I guess you'll just have to take down the teleporter and hurry back to save me." She was about to argue more, but Paragon held her hand up. "We don't have time for this. Those two are already getting back up." Intake and Mars King glared up from the hole they stood in, about to come back for round two. "Trust me, okay?"
She clenched her fist, trying to come up with an answer. She wasn't smart like Mr. Larison or Myth. She had no idea how they could make these split-second choices. Finally, though, she nodded. "I'll keep my super senses cranked up. Scream my name, and I'll quit what I'm doing and blast my way down to the hospital to get you if anything happens okay."
"Got it." Paragon stepped away from the hole. "Do your thing."
She didn't like separating like this, but Paragon seemed to have a plan. The girl was the daughter of Ocean Empress and sister to Poseidon, so she would trust that Paragon could handle herself. None of this even mattered if they couldn't leave the hospital. If she couldn't get away because of that teleporter, then she would just do the next best thing she could think of. "Hey, you cowards. Meet me on the roof, and let's settle this fair and square!" She jumped out of the massive hole she made but only fell about an inch before she sent a mini-explosion out of her legs and used the force to send herself flying up to the roof of the hospital, where she landed, finally nailing her superhero pose.
She could already hear Intake literally crawling up the building, and a door to the roof opened up as Red Ape came running out. She also wasn't shocked to see that two other villains were already on the roof waiting for her. One was White Lamb; the other was some insane-looking woman in a white suit who was glaring at her. Both had been with Green Wolf the night she accidentally joined the Sub Enforcer's mission.
She blasted a ball of fire towards the two girls, but Red Ape jumped in front of the blast and turned his bubble on to full power. She sighed, knowing it wouldn't have been that easy. "I'm guessing you're the one teleporting people around?" She asked, shooting a look towards the woman.
White Spider gave a large grin and nodded. "As a matter of fact, I am."
"Why would you freaking tell her that?" Red Ape slapped his face. "We could have left her guessing."
"She deserves to know who came up with such an amazing idea!" White Spider announced proudly.
Intake pulled himself up to the roof with a grunt. "Mars King is going after the bitch downstairs. I came up to make sure you had someone guarding you other than that idiot."
"Hey! That's a rude thing to say." Red Ape growled. "White Lamb is not an idiot."
Intake snorted and glared at her. "Just keep those girls safe. I'm about to skin me one annoying hero. You got some plans, but you're the same girl I faced before. Still a coward that runs away."
The plan was seemingly working. Mars King was after Paragon, and with Red Ape focused on pure defense, that meant she just had to take down Intake. "You know, I had a feeling you would be up here." She commented, giving a smile towards White Spider. "You could have been smart and hidden somewhere else, but you just had to be on the roof to feel like you were in charge, right? Typical for your kind." She didn't know if any of that was true or not, but the girl seemed like the egotistical type. Red Ape was how she actually knew the woman was up here. He had shouted for her to come down and save him.
White Spider rolled her eyes and gave a large grin. "Save your breath for someone who cares-"
"I have to wonder, though." She interjected, cutting the villain off. "Do these henchmen know how crappy your power is?"
"My power isn't crap!"
"It's not? Oh, then why don't you teleport Paragon up here and grab her?" She eyed White Spider up and down, seeing if the girl would budge an inch. "Or maybe... You can't do that. See, I thought it was kind of odd. You guys are from different teams. Zoo, Bad Timers, mashed together. Things like that only happen during Calamity events, usually. So, whatever you guys are after has to be important, right? That's why I found it odd. If it was important, then why didn't you just grab Paragon instantly?"
"Shut up!"
"I mean, attacking a Super hospital? Like, that is just a stupid idea. Any second now, the Enforcers will arrive-"
"They're not coming!" White Spider hissed out. "They'll be too busy dealing with other crimes. I'm not stupid! You think I wouldn't plan for this! As we speak, dozens of crimes are happening all over this city. We have the full backing of Zoo and the Bad Timers! I bet that by now this city is in pure chaos! Of course, White Lamb has been blocking out all that pesky noise."
She knew the woman wasn't lying. She couldn't hear it, but she could smell it. Smoke. Thick smoke. She saw it, too. Fire. Large and blazing. Something was going on in the city, but she would have to focus on getting out of here first. "You planned for all of this, so you have to be a little smart at the very least. That's why I find it so odd that you did things this way. The smartest and quickest thing to do would have been to grab Paragon and leave. Simply teleport the girl to you, but you didn't. You instead got rid of every civilian and left her. Even if, for some reason, you couldn't move her that way, you still could have moved me, but you didn't. It makes no sense, unless you simply couldn't."
"You don't know anything about my powers! Intake, kill her." White Spider screamed.
Intake folded his arms, a sly smirk on his lips. "Actually, this is pretty fun to watch. Besides, I never really thought about how your powers work."
"Intake!"
"You're mostly right." Red Ape called out to her. "Your mind was on the right track, at least. White Spider here is a teleporter, but it's more of a secondary power, similar to how BB can control wind and shrink."
"What are you doing?" White Spider whispered.
"She marks an area. Think of it like putting a massive barrier around a place. It's invisible and can have some functions based around it. Basically, it's her spider web. The size of this barrier is based on how many of her spiders she has scattered in an area, forming a circle. This entire hospital and the parking lot are caught in her web. Once a web has been set up, it teleports all non-Supers out of the location and stops them from entering, constantly teleporting them back out while constantly keeping Supers in, and then any Super that gets too close gets dragged in."
"Why the hell are you telling her all of this!" White Spider screamed.
"She deserves to know how such an amazing power works." Red Ape said in a mocking tone, doing his best White Spider voice. "Besides, it isn't like it matters. My powers have turned your baby spiders into a new breed. She literally can't find them once the web is set up, and Intake isn't going to let her get through this barrier. Once Mars King has Paragon, we win."
"That's right." Intake reached out with his hand and touched a large metal radio-like tower that was on the hospital roof. The stone on his skin began to shift and morph into a clean metal glow. He grunted as he grew in size and cracked his now-metal bones. "Pretty stupid, leaving the healer downstairs, girl. It's not like it was the dumbest choice you made today, though. Fighting me is pretty high up there."
She took a deep breath, feeling her pounding heart start to steady. Slowly, she tried to give a confident smile, though it likely came out more stressed than anything. It was what the Victorian had done that day during the bank attack. "Let's do this, then. I'm going to take you down, Intake!" The fire surged around her arms as the man roared and charged at her.
Meanwhile, several floors below, Paragon stood. All around her, there was total darkness. She couldn't see. Destiny was flying high in the air, keeping an eye on Cinder in case the girl needed her help, but that meant she herself was totally blind.
It didn't matter, though. She could hear the threat that was near her.
"I applaud your courage in standing before me by yourself." Mars King grunted as he lifted himself through the window. "My master has ordered that I bring you back alive. Give up, and you will not be harmed. Keep up this game, though, and rest assured, I will rip one of your legs off."
"Why are you trying to get me anyway?" You said your master ordered it? What use does Polaron have for me?"
Mars King clenched his fist and took a step towards her. "If left unchecked, you could sink your fangs into the master's body. He is the one who will surpass the Emperor. For the sake of Polaron, I will follow all his commands. He wishes to see you before he beheads you himself. He'd like to kill the threat we seek with his own two hands."
She took a step back, feeling her heart beat faster. "You think I'm some great threat? Not my sister, but me?"
Mars King grunted. "The one who told us of the great threat felt that it could be at two locations. You have the possibility of being one of them. That was why we broke into two teams. Polaron will need to capture his target, then. Even if you are not this big a threat, you are connected to it. He still has a need for you. You will come with me, and you will do so now."
"I'll pass. I sort of like living."
"A leg is coming off then." Mars King growled, stepping towards her.
"I love my sister." Her words caused the villain to stop. "My sister is strong and kind. Too kind. She has made it her job to keep me safe and protected, even when I don't need it. Her kindness is something that will one day get her killed. She believes villains like you, people who had no choice but to live life as monsters, should have a second chance, a third, and a fourth. That is something I don't agree with." Paragon reached up and took her mask off, her blind eyes seemingly staring into Mars King's soul. "I think those who served the Emperor should share the same fate that he did."
"What are you saying?" Mars King didn't know why, but he felt a sudden shiver begin to go up his spine. He took a step back and gritted his teeth. "What is this? What are you?"
Sky gave a smile and cocked her head to the side. "Rest assured when I say this. I'm going to kill you."
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