“I told you I hit harder than a grenade launcher,” Izzy said as the dust to settled.  

“It was just a shitty grenade launcher.  You need to get me a good one next time.”  Mira tossed the weapon aside.

“Buy your own goddam toys.”

“Not a lot of good paying, legitimate gigs in our line of work.  Not without selling out anyways,” she shot back.

Izzy rolled his eyes, and they started through the obliterated reinforced doors of the LC tower.

He stopped and looked back.  Anna was still standing outside, looking up the building.  “Everything alright?”

“You don’t feel that?” she asked.

“No,” he replied.  Tyrese raised an eyebrow and Mira shrugged.

“Probably nothing,” she said, giving one last glance upwards.  It wasn’t nothing, and she knew it.  The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and shivers ran down her spine.  There was a tightness in her throat.  Something was very wrong.

“Hurry up, I’d like to at least make it up one floor before someone shows up to stop us,” Mira said, turning and walking onwards.

“She know the layout?” Anna asked Izzy.

“She knows the layout.”

Anna turned to Izzy, explaining in sign language that the LC tower was designed specifically to prevent what they were trying to do.  No single elevator or stairwell went straight to the top, most only going a maximum of five stories up the 38-story building.

“We have to go up as high as we can, and then cross the building to find another way up another few levels,” she signed.

“I’ll follow you until I can’t,” he signed back.  It was the unspoken agreement that not all of them were going to be able to make it to the top.  Tyrese was conveniently immune to Siren’s power, now wielded by the psycho witch, but his fists wouldn’t do much against her magic.  He was prepared to serve as a distraction if need be to help the others climb the tower.

Mira opened the door to the stairwell, throwing an illusion of herself entering and walking up before she poked her head in and peered up.  “We’re clear.”

They came out on the first main floor, where the LC convened.  Mira stopped short, Anna and Tyrese nearly running into her.  Izzy stepped out from behind Tyrese.

“Well fuck,” Mira said.

Three figures stood at the end of the hall.  

“Out of curiosity, do you have to stop us, or kill us?” Izzy asked, stepping in front of his sister.  He bushed her wrist as he past, a subtle signal.

Megan Buckley strode down the hall towards them.  She was in her casual attire, old boots, faded jeans, and a bomber jacket, though Izzy knew all too well what was under that jacket.  Her long black hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail.  She played with the zipper at her throat, zipping it up and down a few inches.  “Does it matter?”

To her it probably didn’t.  She wasn’t a cold blooded killer, but she had no problems taking a life to get her job done.  The other two, less so, but Lynx was dangerous, and could singlehandedly put a stop to their plans.  

Impaqt and Atonement might have been less lethal but were no less dangerous, and running into these three together definitely put a hitch in the plan.



Tyrese had done a fair bit of research on the LC recently, and even without their costumes he still recognized the three Legends before him.  Truth was the three of them rarely wore their signature costumes except specific photo ops and press releases.  

In their street cloths, they should have looked less intimidating.  Tyrese towered over them, even the guy who was well built; pound for pound Tyrese would crush a man that size in the ring.  But seeing them standing before him, in the flesh, it finally dawned on him that these people had super powers.  All his strength and skill meant nothing in the face of these people who tore the laws of nature to shreds.

The former fighter couldn’t hear Mira scream to run.  He was poised to bolt the moment his companions’ body language shifted to retreat.  Had they waited another few seconds, he might have run on his own, turning and fleeing back down the stairs, and he wouldn’t have followed Anna as she turned and sprinted down a hall.



Anna was just as panicked as Tyrese, but fleeing hadn’t occurred to her.  The sight of the LC, not just Eidolon who’d been knocked out before he could even put up a fight, unnerved her.  They were fighting them because of her.  It was her power that had turned them.  Ursula had been an unknown entity before she’d shown up to steal Anna’s power.  And now she had the LC under her sway.  

When Mira yelled to run, she had bolted, only one thing on her mind.  She didn’t stand a chance against the controlled Legends.  She didn’t think she stood a chance against Ursula, but at least she actually wanted to fight her.  

There was another stairwell on the North side of the tower that would take her up three floors.  It was a start.  She just hoped she wouldn’t run into anyone else.



Megan Buckley, better known as Lynx, unzipped her brown leather bomber jacket, revealing the chains draped across her body.  “Go after the others.  I’ve got B.”

Impaqt and Atonement nodded, breaking off.  Only Barrage still stood at the end of the hallway, staring her down.

Lynx shrugged off her jacket, letting it drop in a heap on the floor behind her.  The claws at the ends of her chain unhooked from the chains looped around her back and floated up over her shoulder before dropping into her hands, while the rest of the massive chain slowly uncoiled itself, building up slack to strike.

Barrage didn’t say anything, his hat pulled low over his face.

Lynx roared, releasing the claws.  The chains fired straight out, sailing through the air.  Barrage charged, ducking and dodging the twin claws at the end of the chain as they rocketed towards him.

On a mere thought, Lynx changed their direction, pulling them back.  The claws reared back, ready to strike as they targeted the cowboy’s back.

And they passed right through him.

“Goddam Mirage,” Lynx hissed, looking for the illusionist.

She saw her just in time, snapping her chains back to her, forming a protective shield as Mira pulled out a pistol and emptied the chamber.

Sparks flew as the bullets collided with the wall of coiled steel.

Mira tossed the gun aside.  No killing and all that.  Still, it might be easier.  Lynx was terrifying, and would kill her without a second thought if given the chance.

Mira made sure not to give her that chance.

Mira tossed a flash grenade at the Legend.  Lynx’s chain coiled reflexively around her as a shield, and she covered her ears and shut her eyes.

There was no sound, and when she opened her eyes, peeking through a gap in the chains, she saw no smoke.  

Another damn illusion.  

Lynx widened the gap in the chains, spotting Mira sprinting away down the hall.  She started to follow, and then stopped, stilling the chains and their rattle and clinking, listening.  The footsteps came from the other direction.  Lynx’s chains hovered behind her like a scorpion’s tail, poised to strike, as she turned and ran after the sound.



All things considered, Barrage considered himself lucky.  Fighting him against her will or not, there were few of his teammates that Izzy felt deserved getting some humility knocked into them more than Impaqt.

Izzy had recruited Zoe Ramos himself about four years ago.  All the major sporting leagues had started doing extensive testing and banning enhanced individuals from competition.  These testing facilities quickly became a job fair for the enhanced and special suddenly looking for lucrative work now that their professional sports careers were over.

While professional sporting leagues no longer wanted people possessed of abilities augmented through genetic, magical or supernatural means, there were plenty of other organizations that would be happy to have such talents on their payroll.

That was Izzy’s basic problem with the Brazilian former soccer champion.  She wasn’t really a hero, she just needed a job, and he’d snapped her up so she wouldn’t end up working for a far shadier organization.  That didn’t mean she wasn’t good at her job and performed admirably, even heroically on occasion, but she was in it for the money and fame, first and foremost.

“I’m going to stop you, Barrage,” Impaqt said.  Her hand reached into her pocket, and Izzy braced himself.  He knew what was coming, had actually suggested it, once upon a time.  Carrying around a soccer ball was impractical.  But a hacky sack was much more convenient and just as lethal in her hands.

She dropped the knit bag and kicked it.  Barrage dove to the floor, the hacky sack whizzing by his head, tearing a hole in the wall behind him.  He rolled to the side as she kicked a second one, this one busting through the floor where he was just laying.

He kipped up to his feet, blowing the third hacky sack out of the air before it reached him, the bag exploding in a shower of tiny white pellets.

She smirked, tossing another foot bag in her hand.  Barrage pointed and blew it out of her hand, and her full lips curled downwards.

Her power wasn’t too different from his own.  The manipulation of kinetic energy, she could transfer any force upon impact with her body outward, hence her nickname.  She’d been a dynamite striker on the soccer field, and once properly trained, a terrifying fighter.  She could hit harder than a normal man twice her size with ease, and her kicks were lethal, all with almost no actual force exerted on her own body.

Still, she was young, inexperienced, and most importantly, not acting of her own free will.

Impaqt charged.  Barrage didn’t even bother firing at her.  Like anything else, the force of his kinetic blast would be greatly dampened; it likely wouldn’t even slow her down.  He ducked under her sweeping kick, diving to the side.  She followed up her assault, and he dodged, slowly backing away.

“Is that all you’ve got?” she asked, the air whistling as her leg swept through the air again, her sneaker centimeters from Barrage’s face.  “Not even gonna fight back?”

“Just waiting for this.”  

Her foot stepped onto the loose pellets from the busted hacky sack.  She lost her footing for a second.  It was all he needed.

His hand shot out and grabbed her throat.  She swung at him, but he ducked, knocking her legs out from under her with his other hand.  He slammed her into the ground, the floor shaking and tile shattering under her.  

She was stunned, even the diminished blow she felt enough to knock her off her game.  Barrage released her throat, running his index finger down her neck, along her solar plexus.  

“Sorry,” he said as he unleashed a powerful blast of kinetic energy at point blank range.



One of Lynx’s claws shot forward, swiping at another grenade that Mirage tossed behind her as she ran from the Legend.  Again the claw swept through thin air, another illusion.

“Your brother should have fought me himself.  He’s above these petty tricks,” Lynx called after the fleeing Mira.

“I don’t think you know my brother that well,” Mira shouted over her shoulder.  “He might not be petty, but he’s all tricks.  Still though, you should be flattered that he left me to distract you.  He figured you’d put up the most fight.”

Mira chucked another grenade.  Over the rattle of her chains and her own footsteps Lynx couldn’t tell if the thing made a sound as it bounced towards her.  Her claws shot out again to swipe it away, and again the claws slashed through the illusion.

Lynx cursed under her breath.  Mirage was good, slowing her down just enough when she was in striking distance.  She grit her teeth and ran faster.

Three more grenades bounced down the corridor towards her.

“Seriously?” Lynx asked.

“One of those is real,” Mirage called back.

Her chains circled around her defensively, but it was too late, the flash grenade going off.

Her control on the chain wavered, and the links crashed to the floor as she staggered into the wall, clapping her hands over her ears.  Smoke filled the hall, but she couldn’t see anything anyways, temporarily blinded by the brilliant flash of light, her ears ringing.

“Ugh, that bitch,” Lynx spat.

She shook off the blow, clearing her still ringing head through sheer force of willpower.  The chains slowly levitated up off the floor, surrounding her once more.  

“I’m gonna rip your heart out.”