Anna rolled up the long driveway to the address Ursula had given her.  She’d let out Israel and Tyrese two miles back, giving them a brief head start to make their way on foot before she completed the last leg of her journey on her own.

She wished she still had her armor as she drove up the road to the house set back in the woods.  It wasn’t just practical protection; it was the mere identity it provided.  Siren was strong, but she was just Anna, and barely that, her identity robbed from her, and she felt small behind the wheel of Izzy’s truck.

And she had to give everything up one more time to get Macy and Ellen back.  The idea of willingly putting that awful thing back in her mouth, wrapping that perpetually damp, bloody cloth around her mouth, feel it suck away her power while she helplessly screamed.  She shuddered as she steered the truck up the winding driveway.  The house was at the top of a small hill, with a hundred yards of empty space around it before the tree line.  It would make an assault difficult, even in the gloom of dusk.

She looked again at the picture on the phone.  The look on Macy and Ellen’s faces filled her with rage.  It gave her the strength she needed.

Anna parked the truck and got out.  She couldn’t see anyone, but she could feel eyes on her from the dark windows.  The front door was ajar, and she walked in.

Black candles lined the foyer, leading to the stairs down into the basement.  She took a deep breath and followed the candles.  It came as no surprise that when she tried the light switch it remained dark, the only light coming from the low flickering candles.

The candles continued from the bottom of the stairs, forming a ring, the cement floor painted with familiar black runes and sigils.  A pedestal sat at the center, and in the dim light she could clearly see the hated black orb that stole her power, the crimson cloth draped around it.  

“Hello?” she called, her voice small.  

There was no answer.  She gulped.  With shaking hands, she pulled the phone out again, using the faint glow of the screen to look around past the ring of candles.  Everything had been swept up to the sides of the room in a clutter, making room for the magic circle.  She skirted around the ring, finding that the wall on the far side to be made of the same semi-solid inky blackness that the Sea Witch’s magical tentacles seemed to be made out of.

“Macy?” she called, listening intently, but all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing and her heartbeat racing in her ears.

She looked again at the picture, steeling her nerves.  “If you think I’m putting that thing in my mouth without seeing Macy and Ellen, you’re crazy,” she said.

Laughter echoed through the basement, and the candles sputtered, despite the lack of any draft.  Anna looked around frantically, but the laughter came from everywhere.



Izzy and Tyrese watched as Anna walked into the house.  They looked at each other and silently nodded.  Tyrese pulled his hood up, his face disappearing into the shadow.  Izzy tipped his hat low.  He silently mouthed for the fighter to give him one minute, and Tyrese gave him a thumbs up.  Izzy turned and ran along the edge of the trees around to the back of the house, and Tyrese stretched, bracing himself to make a dash for the side door.

Izzy waited until he got to the shortest distance between the trees and the back porch and cut hard for the house.

He stopped short as a figure appeared out of the shadows in the back door of the house.  A black haired woman in a black dress stepped across the porch.  “I figured you’d show up, Barrage,” the woman said.

He pointed both his forefingers at her and fired.



They’d been warned that Barrage might show up.  They hadn’t been prepared for Tyrese.  He came out of the shadows, silent thunder raining down upon them.  They were all thugs and fighters the Sea Witch had forced into service, but he was bigger, faster, stronger, tearing into them.  He didn’t hear their screams and cries, couldn’t hear them, as he exploded into the house, taking them down one by one, beating them into submission and unconsciousness.

The Sea Witch had told them not to bring guns, not wanting her true quarry to accidentally take a bullet.  With guns they might have stood a chance, but with fists and improvised weapons and knives pilfered for the kitchen, he tore through them.  His deafness wasn’t a handicap, instead serving as a tranquil peace from which he tore through them.  Tyrese didn’t need to hear the man who’d gotten up behind him as he stood at the end of kitchen.  Years of living without sound had trained him as the perfect observer, and the subtle change in the lighting as the figure approached him from behind was all he needed.  His powerful leg shot out, catching his attacker in the stomach.  He whirled, catching the man’s arm, breaking his wrist, forcing him to drop the knife he carried.  Tyrese grabbed him by the throat, picking him up off the ground with one hand, slamming him into the wall.  The attacker’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he lost consciousness, and Tyrese dropped him to the ground.

It felt good.  Since Anna had gone missing, he’d purposefully wandered into situations where his strength and skill might do some good.  But nothing compared to this.  He looked back over the twenty some odd feet of house he’d cleared, and the ten or so men he’d dropped on his path.  Yes, this was better.  Hero might not be the right word, but for the first time, he was something.  And that something, whatever it was, felt damn good.

Tyrese rolled his head back and forth slowly, cracking his neck.  He pulled his hood off.  It didn’t matter any more.  It inhibited his peripheral vision, and for a deaf guy, he couldn’t afford to lose much else.  He strode deeper into the house, his fists clenched.



“Where’s my sister?” Anna asked, the phone held up in front of her like a shield as she slowly backed towards the stairs.

“She’s waiting for you do your part,” the voice replied.  It was Ursula’s voice, but it came from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Anna looked at the black wall made of the magical inky substance.  She knew in her gut that Macy and Ellen were on the other side of that wall.  Was the Sea Witch there too though?

“I want to see them.”

Again, mocking laughter answered her.

“I need to know they’re alright!”

The laughter stopped dead, filling the basement with chilling silence.

“You need to know that I’m serious,” Ursula’s voice boomed through the basement.  “You brought Barrage.  You thought you could stop me!”  Her voice kept rising.  “You need to know just how wrong you are!”



The sorceress muttered an incantation and an explosion of flames roared across the back yard.  

Barrage laughed, patting out the traces of flames singing his arm as he stepped out into her sight.

“You’re not her.”  He pulled the earplugs out of his ears.  

“Not who?” she asked.

“Not the Sea Witch.  An apprentice maybe?  Or just some lesser spell caster she conscripted into her service.  Doesn’t matter, you’re not her.”

“Doesn’t matter who I am!?” she reiterated.  An explosion rocked the garden, and she glared through the smoke, looking for signs of the Legend.  He strode through the smoke, unfazed by her last spell.

“You’re right.  She’s not here, is she?”

She didn’t answer, closing her eyes and panting, uttering another incantation.  She threw up a shield of arcane energy.  Barrage’s kinetic blasts collided harmlessly against the shield, and with a gesture, she pushed the shield forward, crashing into the Legend.  Another gesture, and it ignited, exploding.

Barrage rolled clear of the explosion, swatting out the flames on his clothes.  “Let me ask you a question.”

She put her hand in her mouth, biting the flesh between her thumb and forefinger.  She ran her fingers through the blood, dragging it across the back of her hand.  “Ask away.”  She held her hand out, screaming in the arcane tongue.

Barrage’s eyes widened as he saw the wards light up all over the yard around him.  The ground erupted in pillars of violet flames, roaring skyward.

The sorceress traced the blood in a spiral down her arm, muttering again before she called the flames to spread out, decimating the lawn.



Tyrese slammed another of the brainwashed men against the wall, sending him crashing through the drywall.  The man slumped to the floor and Tyrese spun around, scanning the room.  Four unconscious bodies lay strewn about the floor.  He checked for a pulse on the one he couldn’t see obviously breathing, and upon finding it, he moved on.  

Another man came charging at him as he rounded the corner.  Tyrese sidestepped him with his uncanny nimbleness, wrapping his huge arm around his throat and throwing the smaller man back over his shoulder, letting him crash to the floor in a heap.

Tyrese spotted the line of candles leading from the front door into the basement, and he raced to the stairs, only to have the door slam in his face.  He barely pulled his fingers out in time to prevent them from being crushed.  He gave a frustrated grunt as he tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.

He gave the room a quick scan for threats before he started throwing his shoulder into the door.



Anna felt her legs turn to jelly, and it was all she could do to keep standing.

The inky black wall slowly peeled apart at the center, and Anna made a strangled gasping noise as she saw Macy and Ellen.

They were both suspended in more of the inky substance, their arms and legs held in its inescapable grasp as they were pulled into taut speadeagles, their naked bodies lewdly displayed.  The wall jiggled slightly as they struggled.

“Anna!” Macy cried when she saw her adopted sister.  

“Macy!”  Anna stumbled forwards, but thick black tentacles sprouted from the wall, keeping her back.  More tentacles wrapped around Macy and Ellen’s mouths, stifling their cries.

“Please!  Let them go!  I’ll do it!” Anna cried, near hysterics.

“I know you will.  And now you’ll know how serious I am,” Ursula’s voice echoed.

Anna watched in horror as the tentacle over Ellen’s mouth spread, oozing up over her nose.  Ellen shook her head furiously as her air was cut off, screaming into the tentacle.

“No, please!” Anna screamed.  She tried to push through the wall of tentacles, but they held her back.

“Watch,” Ursula commanded.  “Watch and know what happens when you try to stop me.”

Anna screamed, struggling as she had no choice but to watch.  Ellen thrashed, the wall shaking with the force of her struggles as she fought for air.  Her eyes were wide, her face turning red.  

Beside her, Macy fought as well, screaming into her gag, but the strong tentacles kept her head facing forward, forcing her to watch Anna witness as her girlfriend was slowly suffocated.



The sorceress barely saw the flash out of the corner of her eye, throwing her arms up as the bolt of kinetic energy struck her, sending her flying.  He was fast.  How was he so damn fast?

She rolled over, clutching her broken arm.  She opened her mouth to cast another spell, but the words of power caught in her throat as Barrage’s boot pressed down on her neck.

“I was going to ask if you followed the Sea Witch voluntarily.  I’d feel bad if you were just one of those she’d forced to follow her with Siren’s stolen power.”  He looked down at her, staring into her panicked eyes as she struggled to breath.  

Her good arm found the tiny knife concealed in her belt, and she stabbed it into his calf.  He screamed in pain, jumping back.  She voiced another spell, lunging forward, touching the blood dripping from the wound with her own bloody fingers, and the waves of agony shot through his leg before the whole limb went dead.

Barrage stumbled, falling over.  He rolled to his side, firing twin blasts of kinetic energy at the sorceress, knocking her back before she could cast another spell.

He grit his teeth, rolling over and pushing up, bouncing on his good leg until he got his balance.  He fired a wild barrage of blasts at the sorceress, keeping her at bay.

“Fucking magic users,” he said, reaching down and pulling the knife out of his calf.  As he did, the feeling came back, and with it the pain.  

He watched as another wall of arcane energy came rushing towards him.  He made no move to dodge this time, sending a torrent of energy at the oncoming force.

The sorceress panted as she gestured for the wall to ignite.  As she made the final intricate motion, a bolt of energy broke through the wall, hitting her full in the chest, sending her flying backwards as the wind was knocked out of her.  She looked up to see the Legend striding through the flames.  He pulled of his flaming remnants of his shirt, tossing it aside.

“Ursula has no need to control me.  Do your worst, asshole,” she spat.

“Tell me what she has planned.  Why does she need Siren’s voice?”

“Make me.”

“Oh, I’m gonna.”



The heavy door refused to yield as Tyrese threw himself against it, over and over.  He pulled out the pistol Izzy had given him, firing at the handle.  He couldn’t hear the screams coming from the basement, but he knew something was very wrong all the same, a keen intuitive sense nagging at the back of his brain.

The bullets tore through the wood and metal, but still when his shoulder slammed against the door again, it held, defended by forces he couldn’t understand.  A shadow caught his eye, and he turned, seeing another controlled attacker.  The man was saying something, but Tyrese didn’t bother trying to figure out what it was.  He shot him in the shoulder and turned back to the door, continuing to rail his bruised shoulder against the barrier.



Anna fought as long as Ellen did, the two of them struggling against the magic tentacles across from each other.  Anna watched the life leave Ellen’s bloodshot eyes, and the two slumped in the tentacles’ grasp in unison.  

The tentacles slowly unfurled, releasing them both.  Anna dropped to her knees and Ellen fell face first to the floor, lifeless.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she repeated over and over.  The tentacles made no move to stop her as she crawled over to the body.

Macy looked down as Anna flipped Ellen over, her hot tears spilling on the lifeless girl’s face as she closed her eyes for her.

Anna slowly got to her feet.  She couldn’t bring herself to look at Macy as she turned back towards the magic circle.  She trudged to the center, her legs heavy.  She picked up the black, pulsing orb.  She didn’t hesitate as she opened her mouth as wide as she could and put the orb inside.  She moved robotically, picking up the blood soaked cloth and tying it over her mouth.  The runes and sigils on the floor lit up with arcane light.  She didn’t scream as she felt the awful thing siphon away her power.



“There’s nothing you can do to stop her,” the sorceress said, laughing through the pain.  Barrage had broken both her shoulders, her arms hanging limply at her sides.  He told himself it was less about torture and more about making sure she didn’t try anymore spells, but there was still that dark satisfaction that came with snapping her bones like twigs with his power.  He’d feel bad about it later, but at that moment, it felt right.

“Then you might as well tell me so I can die trying.”

She laughed again.  “You’ll die here.”  She felt it before he did, but even his senses, not trained to feel the arcane, could tell something had changed.

He reacted quickly, diving out of the way as massive black tentacles erupted from under the porch, wooden planks flying in all directions.

This wasn’t the magic of the sorceress he’d just defeated.  This was the Sea Witch’s power, the tentacles lashing out at him as he fired back, rolling to his feet and retreating to the tree line.

But they weren’t there for him.  They were cleaning up loose ends.

They wrapped around the broken sorceress, her maniacal laughter filling the air as she was crushed in their embrace.  

Barrage watched as the tentacles melted into a black, formless goo, sinking into the ground.  There was no sign of the sorceress.

No, the Sea Witch wasn’t worried about him stopping her at all.  This was simply putting a loyal servant out of her misery.



The door suddenly exploded as Tyrese threw himself against it, whatever power that had been holding it together against his assault gone.  Tyrese nearly fell down the stairs in surprise as he crashed through the wood.

The candles were out.  He switched on the light at the top of the stairs, and the hanging bulb at the bottom of the stairs flicked on.

He pulled the gun back out and made his way down the stairs.  He put it away again just as quickly when he got to the bottom.

Anna was on her knees in the center of the room, her head down, the crimson gag still tied over her mouth.  In front of her, Macy was cradling Ellen’s body in her arms.

Tyrese ran to Anna, putting his hand on her shoulder.  She swatted it away, not looking up.  He tried once more before he moved to the other two.

Macy looked up at him, tears streaming down her eyes.  She’d never met Tyrese, but she knew immediately who he was.  She didn’t understand when he signed to her, asking if he could take a look, but she nodded anyways, understanding he was trying to help.

Tyrese laid Ellen on her back.  She had no pulse, and wasn’t breathing.  He gave Macy a concerned looked, signing and then pantomiming that he was going to try to perform CPR.  Macy nodded numbly, and Tyrese began chest compressions.