The Supervillain floated in the air, her ankles crossed and her back straight. She held her chin high while she grinned down at Nietz and his team. Sparks of electricity danced across her fingertips in playful arcs. Her gray hair, highlighted with purple, fluttered around her face as the wind seemed to pick up more and more. The storm above them was brewing, and Nietz had a bad feeling that she was in her element. 

Even so, whatever she and Kingshark had cooked up with the water they’d been ankle deep in until just a moment ago had been foiled by an ability he knew well. That purple glow could only have been the handiwork of the genius assistant to Euclidia the First Responder, Gravitic.

Nietz grinned. I’m glad I invited him, he thought as Kerauna tilted her head left and right, her eyes flicking between the four of them. Her fingers went down one at a time with each move of her head. Is she counting down? What is she-

She clapped her hands together in delight before pointing at Kong. Kong took a steadying step; everyone flinched. “Fuzzy!” she declared and then pointed at Dragoon. “Grumpy Pants.” She pointed at Hui. “Token Nerd.” She held her finger up and then slowly turned her head with a sneer towards Nietz, her eyes flickering with mirth, and pointed in his direction. “Loophole.”

He forced his expression still as she threw her head back and laughed. She knows about my deal with Ishtar. Ishtar can’t order her to hurt me, but if I’m an unintended casualty… A cold lump formed in his gut. She wouldn’t-

Kera cackled, and electricity leaped from the lights around them and into her hands, forming spheres of deadly energy. “Naughty boy! Forcing your way into the competition! Loophole! Loophole! He knows a loophole!” she giggled.

The others glanced his way, and he set his jaw. “I kind of… twisted Miss Chernovna’s arm to get into the competition,” he said with a shrug. She could have outed me right then and there. Why didn’t she? What’s Ishtar’s game? He clenched his fists as the others shifted their positions. Hui moved back a few paces while Dragoon shifted to a spot in the middle. He and Kong took the lead. 

Kong glanced his way with a grin. “Nothin’ to be ashamed of. It got you here, didn’t it?”

Nietz nodded. “Yeah, it certainly did,” he said and held the madwoman's gaze. She winked at him before rising up higher into the air. “You just gonna dance around or are we doing this, Kerauna?” he demanded.

She tapped her chin, the spheres of electricity jumping from her hands and floating in orbit around her. “Hm? Oh, I’m gonna roast you guys. I just figured I’d drag it out as long as I can. I don’t get a lot of chances to fight heroes, so I wanted to monologue a little like the boss does.” She turned a happy gaze towards them. “How am I doing? Is it good?”

None of them responded as thunder rumbled over them. Nietz glanced up. Oh.

Her expression went flat. “Oh, buzzkills. Got it.” She huffed and crossed her arms. “Well, now I don’t know if I want to do this now! Meanies!” she pouted before whipping her entire body around and laughing. “Just kidding!”

Two spheres of electricity leaped from their orbits and flew around Nietz and Kong. It only took a heartbeat for Nietz to reason their trajectories. Kong moved forward as he darted to the right, hurling himself towards the sphere coming from that direction. Dragoon can handle hers, he thought as his fist went through it. He turned to Kong as a bolt of lightning fell from the sky.

KRAK-THOOOOOM!

Kong was standing, his hand reaching for the sky. He whipped it down and to the left, and the bolt skittered across the ground, losing its energy to the stone beneath their feet. Kong twirled his quarterstaff and caught it beneath his armpit, fist raised and at the ready. Kerauna tilted her head and looked him up and down, biting her thumb. “Rude,” she tutted before vanishing. Her laughter filled the expo plaza as she reappeared behind Kong with a leg raised over her head. 

Kong turned and swung up to meet her kick, electricity literally splashing like water off the point of connection. Hair was already growing on his face as he forced her back. Nietz was ready. His evolved leg muscles coiled and exploded like springs, sending him hurtling towards the woman. She’s out of her mind, no way she’s thinking clearly. Maybe we can-

Her head whipped towards him, and she grinned.

She’s faking it. Oh shit.

Her leg turned immaterial and passed through Kong’s quarterstaff as Nietz’s fist neared her. With the momentum of her downward kick, she pirouetted and drove her shin into the side of Nietz’s head while Kong let out a choking cry of pain. Nietz’s world went white for a heartbeat, the force of the blow not enough to hurt him, but it definitely rang his bell a little. His vision came back as he pulled himself off the ground a few meters away and felt a hand land on his shoulder.

“Resistance glyph,” Hui said in his ear. “Dragoon is getting ready. I’ve got one more for you. Hold on.”

Nietz hopped up and raised his fists. He could feel something spread across his skin, a thin extra layer of protection that seemed to work into every nook and cranny. He set his jaw as he watched the fight. Kong was on the back foot, moving around Kerauna as she teleported around him and delivered quick, vicious shocks where she could, cackling all the while. His temper flared. She’s just toying with us. They’re always toying with us. Are we heroes just going to stay on the back foot?

Kong ducked beneath a kick and planted his feet, striking a palm pose and releasing a blast of qi that sent Kerauna back a few feet. She snickered at him and made a similar pose, releasing an electrical wave that Kong spun out of the way to avoid. His feet were barely touching the ground at this point, his knuckles were covered in hair, and his eyes were glowing. And even then she just wouldn’t hold still.

Nietz ground his teeth. “Hui…”

“I’m hurrying!”

The Supervillain was dancing now, backing up away from Kong’s jabs as he released one qi blast after another to try to even clip her. She snapped her hand out when he overextended, and Nietz’s stomach lurched. Kong seemed to sense the danger because he retracted his staff before she could grab on, extending it again to launch him towards his target. She frowned at her hand and then, almost lazily, slapped Kong across the face. Electricity flashed around his friend, and he hit the ground before starting to struggle to his feet.

“HUI!” Nietz shouted.

“Got it!” Hui gasped and slapped a hand on Nietz’ back, muttering under his breath.

Nietz planted his feet and fixed his eyes on the woman who was raising her hand to the sky. Nietz felt the energy begin to spread from his back along his arms. Oh, no you don’t, he growled. You villains have had the run of things for long enough. We’re making a comeback today, he snarled. EVOLVE! His body grew, and his hair lengthened. His skin grew denser, and his senses flared. EVOLVE! His muscles expanded and then contracted, streamlining and adapting. That big form he had taken before had been too unwieldy, too insensate. He needed clarity and strength, he needed mobility here. EVOLVE EVOLVE EVOLVE!

He felt the glyphs activate on his fists.

“Go!”

Neitz was a flicker. His evolved mind caught up with his sudden movement as he appeared in front of a surprised Kerauna. For the first time, her mask of madness broke, and her expression went cold. She whipped her hand down with a growl as his fist fell towards her. 

THOOOOOOM

Sound broke, and heat spread across his body, but he could take it. He may not be as tricksy or skilled as Kong. He might not have all the wizardry that Hui had. He might not have armor, weapons, and raw talent like Dragoon. But there was one thing he could definitely do. He could take a goddamn hit. He let the massive blast of electricity go right through him as he continued to push forward. The Supervillain’s eyes went wide, and his fist connected. He landed, smoking, breathing hard, before glancing back over his shoulder at Kong. His friend grinned at him and raised an eyebrow. “What took ya?”

Nietz grinned and gave him a thumbs-up before turning back to Kerauna, who was pulling herself off the ground. Oh, no you don’t!

Flicker. He met her eyes. She scowled and vanished as well. He felt the electricity in the air and turned, meeting her eyes again. Her eyes widened, and he turned his head again, snapping a hand out to grab hold of her. Electricity ran up his arm, but he took it. Every time she moved, he turned to face her. Frustration began to burn in her eyes before finally she darted into the sky.

“Okay!” She shouted down at him as he crouched for a jump. “Time to play at Mythic Level!”

His eyes narrowed. What does she mean by-

The lights of the city around them went out.

His eyes widened. You have to be kidding.

Something moved in the clouds as she threw her head back and laughed. “You’re a thousand years too early to fight me, kid!” she cackled. “I’ve always wanted to say that!”

ROOOZAAAAHH

An enormous electric eel poked its head out of the clouds as Kerauna’s body began to glow. She tilted her chin up and clenched a fist in front of her. “I was under orders to keep it Heroic, but since you brats want to play hardball, so will I! This is what that idiot An Set could have done!” she roared as the eel whipped its head down and a column of electricity several meters wide hurtled down towards him from its open maw. Nietz felt his arms go slack. Still not strong enough, he thought. Damn it.

“Sanctuary of Bronze!”

Metal pillars rose from the ground around him as the column of raw power struck. Power passed through him, burning flesh from bone and incinerating the ground beneath his feet. He felt himself drop at least a foot before he landed, and his regeneration, to his shock, began again. He gasped, his heart spasming in his chest. He couldn’t see; his eye sockets felt empty. He dropped to a knee, trying to breathe as his lungs grew back. The first sense that returned was his hearing.

“Nietz! You alive?” Dragoon shouted. She sounded close by.

He shuffled a bit in response as Kerauna laughed. “Ha ha ha! He’s actually cooked! That’s hilarious!” His eyebrow twitched as his vision came back in his right eye, and he glanced to the right. Dragoon was at his side, spear in one hand and a circular shield attached to the other. Around them, a dozen columns made entirely out of bronze jutted up twelve feet. Something flickered between them at the top, but he couldn’t quite make it out.

“You are one tough guy,” Dragoon said with a chuckle, not taking her eyes off of Kerauna as she floated in circles overhead.

He grimaced as his forearm grew back. “Comes with the territory of Evolution.”

She glanced his way and met his eyes through her helmet. A shared moment of trust. She closed her eyes and nodded, taking a knee and pressing her forehead against the shaft of her spear. “We need a strategy. Might as well put Athena’s wisdom to use. Give me a moment to think. We’re safe here.”

He nodded as the other two arrived, Kerauna mocking them from above. “Are you guys really having a strategy session right now?” She laughed as the great eel began swimming through the clouds. “You gotta be kidding me!”

Kong took up a spot ahead of Nietz and glanced back at him with a nod. Hui crouched at his side along with what looked like one of Hammond’s healing nymphs. It was already repairing his clothes that had been torched by the attack. “We’ve got you-”

Nietz held up a hand and shook his head. “I need to heal from it on my own,” he said gruffly and glared at the villain. “Then it won’t hurt as much the next time.”

Hui stared at him before frowning and looking up at Kerauna. “We need a way to ground her. These brass towers will help, but we need someone who can manipulate earth freely.”

Kong looked back. “I can get a feeling for others abilities,” he said quickly. “My gut tells me Harbinger can help.”

They all shared a look as the eel made one more pass, energy building up in its maw. Somewhere within the expo center, Kingshark’s dark laugh boomed. Nietz got to his feet and clenched his fists. He reached for his ear and frowned when he realized that his earpiece had been destroyed. “Kong, I need you to get me there. Hui, I don’t have comms. Dragoon, can you guys hold out?’

Hui was on his feet in an instant and running to the pillars of bronze. He said something quickly with his finger at his ear before pulling out his book. He placed his hands on each of the pillars in quick succession and ranted out strange words. Dragoon looked up at the supervillain. “If you can get her over here, we can at the very least chase her off,” she said resolutely and planted her spear on the ground. It glowed, and she hefted it, rearing back to throw it.

Lightning flashed. “Nietz!” Hui shouted. “Go!”

Kong turned and held his staff up like a bat and grinned. “Ready?”

Nietz laughed. “Always.”

Dragoon tossed her spear as lightning fell again. Nietz launched himself at Kong and snapped out a kick as his friend swung his staff with all his might. The next thing Nietz knew, he was through the glass doors, shards flying around him as the boom of Kerauna’s latest attack shook the entire building. Below him, heroes kept fighting, kept struggling to take control of the building. Up ahead, Kingshark was trading blows with Medved, who pulled away and tilted his chin up, beams of red light lancing from his eyes and sweeping across Kingshark’s chest.

Kingshark roared, and spines erupted from his skin, peppering Medved and forcing the hero to retreat. As he did, Crusader took his place, flaming sword cutting furrows into Kingshark’s tough skin. The supervillain turned only for lights and sound to burst around his head that he dismissed with an echoing groan. In response, the titanic mass of BLF was on him, trying to grapple his limbs and give Crusader an opening. 

That’s the teamwork of a seasoned party, Nietz thought quickly. It looks like they’re buying time for Crusader’s attack to wind up. It hits harder the longer it goes.

He spotted Harbinger, who had pulled back, and with the help of a punch to a flying monster, he changed his trajectory, landing in front of her with a thud. He didn’t waste time; his team was relying on him. “You sure?” He asked quickly as her blue eyes met his own.

She nodded, swinging her war maul onto her shoulder. Rock began to form on it as she held out her hand. “Can you handle him?”

He glanced at Kingshark. “Yeah,” he said and took her hand. “I think I can help.” 

“Then let's turn the tables, hero.”

He put all of his power into his arms and waist, and with a titanic heave, he turned and threw Harbinger back the way he’d come. He turned to face Kingshark, who was yanking himself free of BLF and evolved one more time. A light gray tint spread across his skin. Kerauna was hard to hit, but this guy? This guy was one big target. Crusader just needs a little more time. I can give her that.

Flicker.

“HEY! KINGSHARK!” he bellowed as his fist rose. His voice sounded strange in his ears, deeper, more resonant. He clenched his teeth, the distance shrank, and he put everything he had into that one punch, qi flaring around his knuckles. The Supervillain looked up and squinted, an eyebrow rising in confusion.

“Who’s this fu-”

BOOM!

–

Harbinger landed in what looked like a ring of metal pillars. Lightning crackled along them and skittered across the ground. She took only a moment to assess. The scrawny guy was taking cover behind glowing symbols while the armored girl – ’Dragoon,’ she was pretty sure her name was – threw spears up into the air. She looked up and saw the monkey guy on a cloud, zipping around Kerauna as the great eel roiled in the sky. So they need her on the ground, she thought.

Dragoon’s head turned slowly as Harbinger took a deep breath.

I wanted to show this to Mom before I did this in public. Oh well. She planted her feet and grew to her full height, horns growing from her head. She threw out her hands. Don’t be mad, big sis Gia. You aren’t gonna like this.

There was one rule about the labyrinth. Thou shalt not stand above it.

“You might want to tell your friend to land,” she grunted and grabbed hold of the earth.

Domain.

–

Far, far from the fighting, in a quiet farmhouse that reeked of blood, First Wind took a seat and tossed the suitcase onto the kitchen table. This was it. This was what he’d been so patient for. He’d put up with the idiocy of the Pandora Committee. He’d endured Chernovna’s backsass. He’d tolerated so goddamn much. He had even held back when Blight reared his ugly ass head again. He reached forward and unclipped the suitcase, tossing it open and looking down at the four gem-like tokens. They looked like hockey pucks.

Doesn’t matter what they look like, he thought merrily, and picked one up and closed his eyes before leaning back a bit. Damn, there’s a ton of mana baked into these. They feel like mana crystals from an Epic dungeon at least.

He grinned and crushed the first one in his hand. Alright, time to-

Nothing happened.

He blinked and looked down at the shards in his hand. “What the…?”

Maybe it takes a second, he frowned. No, that Glint brat mentioned that it was instantaneous. I had to tear that info out of him, though. Maybe he was just spitting nonsense. He scratched his head. No, he had no reason to lie. His phone rang, and he glanced at it. His Pandora Representative again. Idiot, why would I answer the phone for you? He thought irritably and grabbed another token. Come on…

CRACK! Nothing. CRACK! Nothing.

His eyes widened as he looked at the last token, his pulse beating in his ears. No, don’t tell me, he thought as he grabbed the last one and broke it before throwing the shards in a fury to the table. “THEY’RE FAKE!’ he bellowed while his phone rang yet again. He answered it in a rage. “WHAT?” he demanded.

“Oh shit, you answered,” his rep said dryly.

“You boggy fuckhead, you better have a goddamn good reason to-”

“Check the news, asshole,” his rep said. “You’re through. I just wanted to be the one to say it. Go to hell.”

Click.

First Wind blinked and looked at his phone. As his blood pressure rose, he opened up the latest news feed. His eyes bulged, and he flipped to another feed, then another. There was footage of him destroying that oil rig in the Pacific. HOW? He stared at the footage, watching himself laugh at the destruction. He saw footage of people next with the words ‘First Wind Testimonials’ scrolling across the bottom.

“He destroyed our homes,” one woman said.

“The forest was just… gone,” an old man croaked.

“My son! My son!” a man sobbed.

The image flipped back to the footage, and he knew how it had gotten out. Amos Carter. Chernovna has been plotting against me from the start. I bet she even knows Blight. That’s how- His eyes went wide. Everything was rage. Everything was the churning storm in his head. He needed to kill her. He had to kill her. He had to destroy everyone and everything. Eliminate the evidence and take what belonged to him. 

“As of this moment, First Wind’s hero license has been revoked.”

He crushed his phone in his hand.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” he roared and blasted through the ceiling. “CHERNOVNAAAAA!”

–

In the car, Charon glanced up at the sky as it rumbled. It sounded like it was screaming. He frowned and flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror. Ishtar was sitting cross-legged in her seat, her eyes cast up towards the ceiling of the vehicle as well. “Boss, did you hear that?” he asked.

She pressed her lips together. “I felt that, Charon,” she said dryly.