Izzy walked up to the front door, pointing two fingers at the center of the heavy wooden door.  A beam of kinetic energy fired from his outstretched fingers, the door splintering and exploding inwards.  Barrage stepped through the broken door.  

“Knock knock,” he said.

Two guards came running, unshouldering automatic weapons.  Barrage sent them sprawling, the strong blasts hitting them both full in the chest.

Glass exploded and the sound of automatic gunfire filled the room, another guard firing wildly into the foyer.  Barrage dove into a roll, popping up and firing back.  The guard ducked behind the door.  

Barrage’s eyes narrowed.  He tucked his middle finger down, aiming just his pointer just to the left of the door.  A beam fired from the tip of his finger, tearing through the wall.  The guard screamed in pain, collapsing into the doorframe.  

Izzy bent over for his hat, casually firing another blast at one of the first guards who was sitting up and reaching for his gun, sending him slamming backwards into the wall.  The cowboy put his hat on, stepping over the guard into the kitchen.



“What’s going on?” Jacob screamed into his phone at his head of security.  Alarms were ringing in the background.

Siren stared at him from her display case across the room and out of earshot.

“The front door was just breached.  Sir, it’s Barrage.”

“What the fuck is the LC doing here?”

“I assure you I have no idea.”

“Well, do your jobs, take him down.  Your men are trained to take down Super Heroes.  I don’t even care if you can’t take him alive.”

“With all due respect Mr. Krum, we’re not prepared to take down a Legend.  He’s moving through my team like water.  I suggest you pack up what you can and get out.”

“Do you have any idea how much I pay you and your team?” Jacob roared into the phone.

“Not enough for this.  You should hurry.”

Jacob threw the phone, shattering it on the wall.  “Fucking Barrage.  God Damn LC!  They have no right to barge in here!”

He turned, staring at his newest piece.  Siren stared back at him.  She had no clue what was going on, but it couldn’t be good, at least not for her captor.

Jacob clenched his jaw.  “Don’t you worry,” he told Siren.  “You’re not going anywhere.”  He turned, heading for the door.



Barrage ducked under a counter as bullets exploded glassware above his head.  He hooked his fingers over the countertop, firing back blindly.

They were retreating, covering their escape as they moved towards the back of the mansion.  He gave just enough chase to keep them moving.  They’d tightened their ranks, moving smarter, and a couple of them winging him with bullets before he’d sought cover.  But they were on the run, and it was only a matter of waiting them out.

“A million dollars to the man who brings me Barrage’s head!”  A booming voice cut across the mansion over an intercom.

“Well this is going to make things interesting,” Izzy muttered as the gunfire paused.  He stood up, firing out over the counter.  

A guard stepped into view, firing his sidearm at the Legend.  Izzy fired back, his stronger blast knocking the bullets out of the air and smashing the guard’s gun back into his face, breaking his nose.

A burst of machine gun fire lit up the room.  Barrage was thrown backwards as a bullet tore through his shoulder.  He threw his hands up, firing back, his kinetic blasts destroying the room.  

He rolled to his feet, wild gunshots still being fired into the room from behind cover.  Broken glass cut into his hands as he pushed himself up to his feet.  He rolled his shoulder experimentally, feeling the bullet still lodged under his collarbone.  He saw a guard lean out from behind a pillar.  He pointed a finger at the pillar, obliterating the marble column and taking out the guy behind it.

He saw movement from the stairs, firing into the stairwell, taking out the wall and stairs in a heavy burst of concentrated fire.

The guard who’d had his nose broken was crawling for his gun.  Izzy blasted him in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.

He waited for another assault, but none came.  The million dollar price tag just wasn’t enough, evidently.  Wincing, he dug his fingers into his shoulder, prying out the slug.  Fresh blood spurted from the wound.  He ripped off the edge of his shirt, pressing it into the wound, holding it tightly in place as he walked through the wrecked kitchen.



Jacob watched on his security cameras as the Legend walked through his house.  His god damned house, completely trashed, priceless art and artifacts destroyed as Barrage blasted his way through the few members of his security team that hadn’t fled.

It didn’t matter.  He could hire a new security team, one that could handle one fucking man.  He could rebuild his mansion, he could replace the art.  Right after he killed that asshole Barrage.

“I’ll show you a gunslinger,” he said, checking the bullets in Henry Newton Brown’s revolver.

He left the security office, heading to the dining hall where Barrage was currently holed up.

He poked his head around the corner.  The sound of gunfire had stopped, and Barrage was preoccupied checking a fresh bullet wound in his thigh.

Jacob stepped around the corner, raising the revolver.

Barrage didn’t even look up, pointing his finger back and blasting the gun out of Jacob’s hand, breaking his trigger finger.

“Ow, Jesus!” Jacob screamed, cradling his mangled hand.  He dropped to his knees, scrambling for the gun as Barrage moseyed across the room.  He’d just gotten his left hand on it when Barrage smashed the heel of his boot down on his hand, crushing it.

Jacob screamed again, curling up in pain.

“That’s a nice gun,” Barrage said, picking it up.  “A lot more effective in more competent hands though.”  Raising his right arm, he fired blindly behind him with his left, shattering six vases in quick succession.  He tossed the spent gun aside, kneeling over Jacob.  “You know who I am?”

“You have no right to be here!” Jacob screamed, trying to scoot backwards across the floor.

“I’m just looking for a friend of mine.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Unfortunate.”  Barrage reached over and twirled the gun on the floor with his finger.  “This really is a fine weapon.  I’m sure it’s obvious, but I like stuff like that.  I grew up on American Westerns.  Built my whole image around the gunslingers I idolized as a kid.  That whole gritty ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ mentality.  It doesn’t quite vibe with my job these days, but I still get to pretend to shoot people.  Have you ever been shot?”

Jacob stared at him, his breath coming in shallow gasps.  “No.”

“I have.  A couple of times today actually.  A million dollars for my head.  I’m flattered.  It hurts like a bitch.  I usually try to pull my punches, so to speak, can’t have one of the LC going around blowing holes in people.”  Barrage curled his thumb in, pointing his four fingers at Jacob.  “Now this, with four fingers, it’s like getting punched.”  He unleashed a blast of energy from his four fingers, hitting Jacob in the chest.

Jacob was knocked back a foot, coughing and wheezing as the air was violently forced from his lungs.

“Well, it’s like getting punched really hard.”  Barrage curled his pinky in, pointing three fingers.  “And this, it’s kind of like getting shot with a beanbag.”

The blast hit Jacob in the stomach.  He screamed silently, clutching his stomach as he rolled over and vomited.

“It’ll cause some internal bleeding and severe bruising.  Now, two fingers,” he said, curling in his ring finger, “That’s what I used on your men.  It’s like a rubber bullet.  It’ll break bone.”

He pointed at Jacob’s shoulder, and there was an audible crunch as Barrage broke Jacob’s collarbone.  

Barrage brought his middle finger in, pointing his lone index finger at the crumpled man.  “This is the real deal.  It’ll tear a hole right through you, make that fine weapon there look like a toy.”

“In the library!”  Jacob screamed.

“What’s in the library?”

“There’s a secret door, behind ‘Don Quixote.’  The password for the trophy room is 8592!  Please, just don’t kill me.”

“Trophy room,” Barrage spat with disgust.  “I almost want to.”

He got up, and walked off towards the library, leaving Jacob on the floor, sobbing.



Anna’s eyes lit up as she saw Izzy walk into the trophy room.  He looked like hell, dirty and bloody, but she’d never been so excited to see someone in her life.  She waved her hands wildly over her head, not caring that she was still stark naked and exposed.

He saw her and broke into a run over to her glass prison.  “Are you alright?” he asked, looking around the glass case for a door.

“I can’t hear you,” she said in sign language, and quickly realizing he couldn’t understand, she put her fingers in her ears, mouthing, “it’s soundproof,” hoping he’d get the message.

Izzy nodded.  “Get down,” he said, waving her down.

She started to shake her head, but he was already pointing, and she dove for the corner.

She didn’t hear anything, but when she looked up, a spiderweb crack had appeared in the center of the glass front.  Izzy brought his foot up, kicking right at the center of the crack, and the glass shattered, falling to the floor.

“Izzy!  Oh thank god.  How did you even find me?”  She took a step back, getting a small running start as she leapt over the broken glass, Izzy steadying her as she landed clear.

“Your sister.  She didn’t trust Hoonan, figured out she was an imposter, slipped a tracker into your new mask, and called me with the number she stole from you at some point.”

Anna’s jaw dropped.  “Damn.  I mean.  Damn.  Where is she?”

“She’s in my truck, she’s fine.  She let me do the easy part.”

“Izzy, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Oh, would you mind?” she pointed at the glass case containing her costume.

“New costume?” he asked, firing at it and shattering the glass.  “I don’t like it.”

“You and me both.  But it beats leaving here naked.”

“Eh, debatable.”  She gave him a sour look.  “I like the mask though.”

“Yeah, Macy gets final say on all costume decisions from now on,” she said, pulling on the costume.  “There are other girls here, kidnapped heroines, I don’t know how many, or where, but some of them have been here for years.”

“Okay.  You think you can find them?  There’s a phone upstairs, you should call the police if someone hasn’t already.”

“What about you?” she asked, twirled her baton before collapsing it and putting it back in her belt.

“It’s probably best if I’m not here when the cops show up.”

“What am I going to tell them?”

“You were looking for a good PR opportunity.  This is it.  An undercover sting operation, where you saved several other Super Heroines from a deranged collector.”  He started heading for the door.

“But I didn’t do any of that.  I didn’t do anything,” she called after him.

Izzy laughed.  “Anna, you keep doing this thing, where you act like you’re all on your own.  Now, I’ve got to go to Minnesota and buy a pie,” he turned, walking out of the room.  

“What the hell does that even mean?” she asked the empty room.



Siren had found three more girls, all at one time small time super heroines before Jacob Calloway had added them to his collection.  All three were in shock as paramedics took them away.

“Siren, is it?” a mustachioed detective asked, walking over to her as she watched the ambulances roll down the driveway.

“Yes, it is.”

“Detective Alan Markowitz,” he said, shaking her hand.

“A pleasure, detective.”

“Do you mind if I get a statement from you?”

“Sure.  I’d gotten word of man, Jacob Calloway, who was abducting women.  I allowed myself to be captured, to lead my associates here to bring him and his operation down.”

“Your associates?  Other Super Heroes?”

Siren stole a glance across the police tape, where a few gawkers and a news crew had gathered.  Macy was standing off to the side.  She smiled.

“They’re heroes, let’s just say that.”

“Right.  And then what?”

“Calloway’s security team put up a fight, several were injured, and unfortunately most got away.  But Calloway was apprehended, and three girls were rescued.  Anything else?”

“No, that about does it.  Your license checks out, no one here is going to hassle you about your associates.  I’m supposed to tell you that next time you should call us before there’s gunfire.”

“I apologize.  Things went sideways.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, just covering my ass by telling you.  You did great work today.  World would be a better place if there were more like you.”

Siren couldn’t help but beam.  “Why thank you, Detective Markowitz.  If there’s nothing else, it’s been a long day.”

“Oh, by all means.  Thank you again.”

“Thank you.”

She turned and started walking away, when he called after her.  “Hang on a second.  I almost completely forgot.”

“What is it?” she asked.  She got that sinking feeling that things had been going too well.

“Can I get your autograph?  My daughter’s a huge fan of yours.”

“Oh.  Of course.”  She couldn’t keep the smile off of her face as he handed her a pad of paper.

“Make it out to Wendy.  She’s 11.  She won’t believe that I got to meet Siren, a real Super Heroine.”

Siren froze, the pen tip hovering over the pad, as she realized she hadn’t given an autograph as Siren in over eight years.  It was the kind of thing you didn’t realize you even had missed until you got to do it again.

“Something the matter?” Markowitz asked.

“No, just thinking of something clever and inspiring,” she said, scrawling a quick note.

“Wendy, being a hero is just the will to do good and having the right friends- Siren.”

“I tell ya, it’s good for her to have a role model like you.  And if you don’t mind me saying, you’re one of the better dressed ones.  Not too slutty, though…” he gestured at her new costume, and its low cut top.

Siren laughed.  “This was a one time thing.  I made the mistake of not listening to my stylist.  It won’t happen again.”

“You take care.  And you’re always welcome in Benerado.”

Siren’s jaw almost dropped when she heard where she was.  She hadn’t really paid attention, and she’d been knocked out for the drive, she had no idea she was over four hours from home.

She disappeared into the woods behind the house, meeting up with Macy.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Macy said, hugging her.

“Macy, I can’t thank you enough, or apologize enough.”

“Thank you over, apology over,” Macy said.

“No seriously, I owe you.  And I might have to owe you again.  We don’t have a way home, and I don’t have my wallet on me, so…”

Macy laughed.  “I will get us a rental car.  Izzy just kind of left.”  They started walking towards the road.

“Yeah, he said something about having to go to Minnesota to buy pie.  Any idea what that was about?”

“No clue,” Macy said.  “Not much of a talker, that one.”

“I know.  How was a four hour road trip with Barrage?”

“Oh, we did it in less than three.  That truck of his looks like shit, but that thing’s got some serious get up and go.  He outran a cop.”

“You were in that much of a hurry?” Siren asked incredulously.

“Wasn’t me.  I was just slowing him down.”

“Wait, what?  I thought you called him.”

“I did,” Macy said, pausing.  “Oh.  Oh,” she said knowingly.

“What?” the heroine asked.

“He didn’t tell you.”

“Didn’t tell me what?”

“He already knew Hoonan was fake when I called him, he was trying to track your phone.  The only reason he agreed to bring me along is because I wouldn’t tell him where you were if he didn’t.”

Siren stopped.  “No, he didn’t tell me any of that.”

“Well, he’s never been too big on credit.”

“No, no he hasn’t,” Siren mused.  What game are you playing, Israel, she wondered.