Lini sprinted after Mira.  The Legend had no desire to catch Barrage’s little sister.  But she had to.  She’d been told to.  The truth was, she’d always liked Mira; she found the girl’s bitter attitude towards the LC kind of endearing.  She suspected the girl was all bark and no bite, following her big brother to America and following in his footsteps as a super hero, but drawing the arbitrary line that divided her from her brother at his organization.

But what fondness she had for the younger LeBlanc was tempered by a need to stop her at all costs.  Lini adjusted her gloves and aimed her palms in front of her at the floor of the long hall.  Crystalline frost appeared on the floor, and ahead of her Mira stumbled for her footing, slipping on the newly formed ice.  Lini leapt into the air, kicking her heels back to her butt.  She slapped her hands against her ankles, and thin blades popped out of the bottom of her boots.  She landed smoothly with practiced ease, gliding along in her ice skates.

Mira looked over her shoulder as she first started to slip.  Izzy had neglected to tell her this little detail of Lini’s power set.

The plan had never been to outrun her, but it definitely forced her to speed up her timeline.  She spun around a corner, sliding into a wall before she stepped onto unfrozen ground once more.  She didn’t make it far before Lini gracefully maneuvered the corner and played out a fresh layer of ice down the hall.



Aegis stepped out into the hall in front of Atonement.

“Move,” Atonement shouted, stepping to the side as he tried to run past.

Aegis had been meditating, until tremors in the very building itself had roused him.

The immortal’s arm shot out, stopping the other Legend in place.

“There are intruders,” Atonement said, looking up at Aegis.  Atonement was a big guy, only about an inch shorter than Aegis, but something about Aegis made everyone look up to him.

Aegis didn’t respond, examining Atonement’s eyes.

“Barrage is back, he’s got his sister and Siren and another,” he said.  “They can’t make it to the top of the tower.”

“I see.”  Aegis lowered his arm.  Atonement started to move past.  “No.”  Aegis stopped him again, more forcefully.  “You’re compromised.”



Tyrese steadied himself on the wall.  Mammoth was slower than him, but the neanderthal of a man seemed to shrug off every hit Tyrese landed.  The Legend was letting the fighter wear himself out, and even realizing what was happening hadn’t prepared him for the few hits Mammoth had landed when Tyrese let his guard down.

Mammoth charged, forcing Tyrese to keep moving, backing up while he threw jabs at the bigger man.

When he used to fight, he always had to remember that he was a big target in the ring.  Now he was the one who had a big target, and he was landing solid hits against what should have been vulnerable spots.  Mammoth barely winced as Tyrese landed a sweeping kick against his kidneys.  The fighter wondered if Mammoth’s internal organs were even in the same place as a normal person.  There was no definitive story on where Mammoth had come from.  There were rumors of time machines and early attempts at cloning gone wrong.  And with the massive tusks sticking out of his lower jaw, Tyrese found he couldn’t read his lips the few times the giant tried to talk to him.

He could run.  Anna was already long gone.  

Mammoth managed to get both of his massive hands around his head, and he swung him, throwing him like a hammer.

He should run.  He’d managed to keep a member of the LC from stopping her, which was about all he could expect to do.

Tyrese got up, rolling his shoulders.  He put his fists back up as Mammoth bore down on him.

He wouldn’t run.

He feinted left and stepped in right.  Mammoth took a swing, and stepped into the blow, deflecting it with left while he hammered his right into Mammoth’s solar plexus.

Mammoth staggered backwards as the weighted glove slammed into his chest.  Tyrese watched the look of surprise, and actual pain cross Mammoth’s severe features.

Tyrese leapt up and kicked out, planting both heels solidly in Mammoth’s gut.  He landed on his back and kipped immediately back up to his feet, pressing his advantage as Mammoth buckled over.  Tyrese grabbed his head and pulled it down into his knee.

Tyrese Cain didn’t run.



Teufel Klinge, Devil Blade in German.  It had another name, one that Izzy didn’t know and didn’t want to.  The sword slid across the floor as Izzy blasted it again, pushing it out of reach again.  Gallant backhanded him across the face, sending him reeling.  Just the brief contact his hand had made with the hilt before Izzy had knocked it from his belt gave him frightening strength.

Geoff Maier was only 53, but he looked like he was on the other side of 70.  The cursed sword literally sucked the life out of him each time he used it, taking anywhere from hours to years off his life depending on how much power it granted him.  It had been years since he’d even drawn the blade, serving the LC in an advisory capacity, keeping the blade for emergencies.  Izzy was gonna be damned if he let today be the day Gallant drew the sword again.

The blade, still in its sheath, spun as it slid, making an unnatural bounce off the wall and clattering back towards Gallant.  It came to a stop a few feet from him, the blade sliding free a few inches from its scabbard, revealing the dull metal.  

Izzy felt his eyes drawn to it.  It wanted to be used.

Izzy shook his head, pulling his eyes away.  Gallant was already bending over for it.  Izzy grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him back.  “Not gonna let you do that for me, old man.”

Gallant slammed his head backwards into Izzy’s nose.  Izzy cried out, his grip loosening as his nose gushed blood.  Gallant shrugged him off and lunged for the blade.  

Izzy fired again, but this time the blade barely moved across the floor.  It was as though it had made itself heavier, rooting itself to the ground within reach.  

“Seriously?” Izzy asked.  He shook his head clear and lunged forward, tackling Gallant.  He wrapped his arms around him again and rolled under him as he brought him down, protecting him from the blow.  With the sword, Gallant was a beast.  Without, he was riddled with osteoporosis and Izzy didn’t want to hurt him if he could avoid it.

Gallant used Izzy’s leniency against him, coming down hard on him.  He rolled off Izzy and brought his hand back into his groin.

Izzy coughed hard and rolled over, fighting the instinct to curl into a ball and cradle his bruised balls.  “Low blow old man.  I expected better from you.”

“So did I,” Gallant responded.  He struggled to stand, and stumbled, instead opting to crawl towards his sword.  “You betrayed your family Israel.  That’s the lowest blow of all.”

“I didn’t- never mind.  You’re not in your right mind, and I’m not gonna let you draw that sword today.”  Izzy sprung to his feet and rush Gallant.  He grabbed him in a choke hold, pulling him back just as Gallant’s fingers brushed the hilt of the sword.

A surge of power rushed through Gallant, and he stepped backwards with the cowboy, slamming him into the wall.  

Izzy was taken aback again by the sheer strength displayed.  The wall cracked behind him, but he maintained his hold, tightening his arm around Gallant’s throat.  “Just go to sleep, old man.”

Gallant pushed back again, but the power was gone, and Izzy held him easily.  “You.  Are.  A.  Disgrace.”

“I’m gonna remember that you’re being controlled and not hold that against you,” Izzy said, tightening his grip as Gallant pulled feebly at his arm.  The old man struggled for a bit and then went still.

Izzy slowly lowered him to the floor.  He leaned over him, panting.  His eyes were drawn to the sword again, the dull gleam of the metal reaching out to him.  He could use it to fight the Sea Witch.  The sword’s possession would protect him from being compelled, he just knew it.  It made perfect sense.

He didn’t even realize he was reaching for it until his fingers were mere centimeters from the hilt.  He came to his senses with a start, firing off kinetic energy reflexively from his fingertips.  The sword ricocheted off the floor and bounced up, and Izzy leapt back out of the way, dodging as the sword leapt at him.

He took a deep breath, staring at the sword as it came to a rest by his feet.  The sword may or not actually protect him from Siren’s power, but he had no intention of finding out.  He blasted it across the floor, this time the blade obeying the laws of physics as it slid across the floor into a room.  Izzy shut the door and blasted in the doorknob, leaving it sufficiently out of Gallant’s reach should he wake up.



Lini noticed that the hallway wasn’t quite right a split second before she found herself soaring through the air.

The stairs.

She’d been gaining on Mira, the girl foolishly trying to lose her in a straightaway.  But as Lini skated closer and closer, she realized something wasn’t quite right.  There were supposed to be stairs.  

She’d barely had time to register her mistake when her ankles were grabbed.  She looked down in time to see Mirage crouched on the stairs below her, holding onto her ankles.  She tried to channel her powers down at the illusionist, but she was moving to fast, her forward momentum sending her careening in a downward arc.  She cried in out in surprise, her scream cutting off abruptly as she crashed face first into the stairs.

Mira let go of Lini’s ankles and pulled her to the bottom of the stairs before rolling her over.  There was an ugly gash across her forehead, but her cold, sluggish blood barely seeped from the wound.  She’d probably have a concussion, but Mira hoped her cold blood would protect her brain from swelling.  

“Nothing personal Lini, I hope you understand,” Mira said.  She turned and ran back up the stairs.

“Lini!”

Mira dove to the floor.  She crawled back to the railing, peering down over it.  The great white feathery wings on the back of the figure leaning over Lini’s prone body wer a dead give away that she now had Pegasus to deal with.  Mira nodded.  She could take the winged Legend.



Anna stared longingly at an elevator as she jogged past on her way to another staircase.  She was exhausted, and not even sure what floor she was on anymore.  Taking the elevator was risky; they could just force stop them and she’d be stuck and trapped, but even worse than that, she’d know what floor was on, and she knew that number was much lower than she wanted it to be.  

She’d left her friend with no powers of his own to fight a Legend while she ran away, and she could barely make it up the stairs.  She patted the pouch hanging from her belt at her hip.  The thing inside pulsed with its own arcane life, reminding her that she had to keep going.  She focused on her breathing and ripped open the door to another stairwell and started up, pulling herself forward on the railing as her tired legs screamed at her.



A roar of pain escaped Tyrese’s mouth.  His feet were lifted off the ground and he fumbled for something to hold onto, gripping Mammoth’s thick mane of dark hair, desperate to alleviate the pain in his shoulder he was currently suspended from.

The giant had gored him.

He’d gotten cocky.  He was actually holding his own against the Legend.  Mammoth had been doubled over, and Tyrese was ready to bring both fists down on the back of his head and finish it when Mammoth had lunged forward, one of his tusks piercing his shoulder under his collarbone.  

Tyrese was sure his whole left arm would be torn off as Mammoth lifted him off the ground.  Tyrese felt the reverberations of Mammoth’s roar through his whole body, and the giant slammed him against the wall, holding him aloft while he began to lay into his body with his massive fists.

Tyrese tightened his stomach and rained blows down on Mammoth’s head, but they didn’t seem to faze the Legend.  Pinned against the wall, he couldn’t get any leverage for a good swing that might actually break the giant’s grip.

Gritting his teeth through the pain, the fighter groped blindly with his left hand for Mammoth’s mouth, hoping to somehow dislodge him.  His fingers tightened around the other tusk, the one not currently skewering him.  Tyrese shut his eyes and yanked with all his strength.

Hot blood spurted all over his hand, and a guttural roar from Mammoth quaked through Tyrese’s body.  Mammoth reached up and grabbed his wrist, but the damaged was done.  His blood soaked hand slipped from Mammoth’s grasping fist, and Tyrese raised the tusk above his head, spinning it in his grip.  He held the six inch ivory spike in both hands and brought it down into Mammoth’s unprotected back.

Mammoth dropped to his knees, screaming in pain.  Tyrese dropped to his feet, and with his own roar of pain, he shoved Mammoth off him, extricating the tusk buried in his shoulder.

Mammoth’s hands clawed over his shoulders, reaching for the tusk still implanted in his back.  Tyrese grabbed him by the hair and brought his knee up into his head.  Mammoth slumped to the floor, out cold.

Tyrese stood over the fallen Legend, clutching his hand to his shoulder, stemming the flow of blood.  He’d done it.  He’d not just survived a fight with a Legend, he’d actually won.  He’d gone toe to toe with one of the biggest guys on the planet, and now he stood, triumphant.

Their reasons for coming didn’t matter in that moment.  Pride surged through him.  In that singular moment, nothing else mattered.  Getting his tongue ripped out and his eardrums punctured all those years ago didn’t matter.  There was no belt or title that could compare to the feeling of euphoria coursing through his veins.

All of that was shattered in an instant.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked up to see a blur tearing towards him.

Aegis.

There was no fighting with Aegis.  He held his own against Mammoth, triumphed against the giant, but now, he was going to die.

The immortal was on him in an instant.  Tyrese threw one punch, his fist smashing into Aegis’ cheekbone.

It was like punching a wall.  Several bones in his hand shattered on impact.  Aegis didn’t even flinch.

Aegis slammed the heel of his hand into Tyrese’s chest, sending him flying backwards, crashing through a wall.

Tyrese mercifully blacked out on impact.

Aegis looked down at Mammoth’s prone form.  “Impressive,” he said, rubbing his cheek where the fighter had hit him.  

He turned towards the hole in the wall when a hail of force lit him up from behind.  Aegis stumbled, nearly losing his balance before he turned and dug his feet in, leaning into the blast, holding his arms up against the rain of kinetic energy bearing down on him.

When it subsided, he lowered his arms and stared across the hall.

“We need to talk.”

“That we do, Israel.”