Mira ducked as Pegasus’ wing swept through the air above her head.  She’d quickly found out that the great, feathered things were sturdier than she had expected, and Pegasus certainly knew how to use them.  She’d periodically flap them, sending great gusts of wind down the hall.  Mira couldn’t make her illusions adequately imitate the effect of the wind even when she could keep them up in the strong winds, and Pegasus had no problem zeroing in on her time and time again.  

Mira darted in, taking a few quick jabs at her before retreating again as Peg’s other wing lashed out.  Pegasus was herding her, pushing her along through the narrow halls to somewhere she could really spread her wings and put them to good use.  Mira let her push her.  She wasn’t exactly at her best in a bareknuckle brawl with the winged super heroine.  The statuesque blonde was always portrayed as this figure of feminine grace and beauty, an angel fallen from heaven, but Mira was quickly discovering that in order for a woman to not only fly around with wings meant to keep birds in the air, but to pick up and carry around other people while doing so, Pegasus had to be really frickin’ strong.  She was reasonably sure that they actually airbrushed the muscles off of her when she did photo shoots.

“Peg, I’ve always been curious, and Izzy doesn’t pay attention to these things, but do you have a special tailor for all your backless tops, or do you just cut a hole for your wings yourself?”

“Really?  That’s what you’re going to ask me while you attack me?”

“Well, ideally, this will be the only time I’m attacking the LC Tower, and I don’t see myself joining up with the LC anytime soon, or ever, so yeah, this seemed like a good time to ask.”  Mira unleashed a spray of bright lights into Pegasus’ face.  The Legend shielded her eyes with her hands, wrapping her wings around her defensively, but Mira was already on her, rushing inside her wings as they circled around her.  She grabbed the sides of Peg’s face and pulled herself up, bringing her knee into the taller girl’s chin.  Mira kicked off Pegasus’ ample rack, knocking the Legend backwards as she back flipped over her wings.

“Ugh, you little bitch,” Pegasus hissed, spitting blood on the floor.

“So, about those shirts?” Mira asked, waving her to come on.



The ground exploded as Barrage landed.  He unleashed a torrent of kinetic energy at the ground before his impact, breaking his fall.

People were starting to gather on the streets, pulling their phones out and shooting video.  Seeing the LC out and about in Arlington wasn’t an unusual spectacle, but seeing two of them jump from the tower and land in craters in the street certainly drew a crowd.

“Clear the area,” Aegis said, climbing out of the crater he landed in.  The pedestrians still stood and stared, making no move to clear out.  “I said get back!” he shouted, his voice thundering through the street.  His tone demanded obedience, and people scattered.

“Nothing to see here,” Barrage said, climbing out of his own crater.  He was barefoot, having blown his boots apart in his landing.  The legs of his pants hung in frayed tatters.  “Just two Legends settling a dispute.”

“Is that what this is?” Aegis asked.  “Settling a dispute?”

Barrage looked back up over his shoulder, looking up to the top of the tower.  “If we can’t reach an agreement, I’m at least gonna stall you.”

“Stall me from what?”

Barrage shrugged.  “I don’t know really.  But you’re not getting back in that tower.”

“You’re a fool.”

“And you left me no choice.”

“It seems you’re not going to leave me with one either.”

Aegis leapt at him, easily clearing the twenty feet between them in one powerful jump.  Barrage dove to the side, blasting Aegis and knocking him out of the air across the street.  Aegis landed on his feet, staying low to the ground, digging his toes into the asphalt as he charged at Barrage.



Mira crashed into the ground on her back.  Pegasus had only dropped her from ten feet up, but the fall still winded her.

Pegasus landed gracefully on the other side of the room, folding her wings neatly behind her.  They were in one of the tower’s large atriums, four stories high with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city on one side and balconies on the other.  

“Give it up, Mirage,” Pegasus said.

Mira pushed herself to her feet.  “I’ll pass.”

“So be it.”  In one smooth movement, she unfurled her wings and dove into a glide, soaring across the room.

Mira let herself go limp as Pegasus grabbed her by her shirt, yanking her upwards, her powerful wings beating as she took off upwards.  

Pegasus flinched as the ceiling rushed up on her way too fast.  She knew it was an illusion, but even still, her reflexes kicked in, and her grip loosened.

Mira struck her in the throat.

Pegasus coughed, choking.  Mira threw her arms out, breaking Pegasus’ grip completely.  She dropped.

Pegasus watched Mirage drop, tumbling backwards, hurtling headfirst towards the floor twenty-five feet below.

“Shit,” Peg muttered, tucking her wings in and diving after her.  She didn’t want her to crack her stupid head open.

The real Mira watched from the railing she was clinging to.  It had been a tough illusion to nail, creating the image of her falling while shielding her real body behind an illusion of the background; all while throwing herself towards the railing and catching herself.  But evidently she’d pulled it off passably, as the winged Legend was chasing the decoy.  Peg was actually trying to save her.  She almost felt guilty.  Almost.

Mira threw herself off the railing and dove after Pegasus as she dropped past her.

Pegasus’ fingers passed threw Mirage, and she immediately knew her mistake.  She unfurled her wings to take flight again, just as Mira landed on her back between her wings.

Cursing, she flapped hard, just barely getting enough air under wings to keep her from crashing into the floor.  

“Giddyup!” Mira called, leaning forward, the shift in weight, forcing Pegasus to dip forward as she glided above the floor.  

Peg threw her arms out and she hit the ground, tucking her wings in and diving into a controlled roll.

Mira leapt nimbly off her, landing on her feet and running after the Legend as she tumbled across the floor.  Pegasus came to a stop and looked up just in time to see Mira’s foot kicking up, catching her right in the chin.  Pegasus collapsed on the ground, unconscious, and Mira kept running.



Barrage stomped his heel forward, sending a wave of kinetic energy through the street.  The asphalt crumbled and shook, Aegis losing his footing as he charged.  Barrage sidestepped one of Aegis’ flailing arms as he careened forward.  He pointed up under the immortal’s chin, blasting upward.  Aegis’s head snapped up, the top of his bald head tapping Izzy’s other elbow positioned above it.  A surge of force exploded downward from Izzy’s elbow, sending Aegis crashing face first into the broken asphalt.  Izzy was on him in a flash, spinning around and landing on his back, blasting downwards as he brought him to the ground.  He brought his fist up and began to pummel the back of Aegis’s bald head, driving his face into the ground over and over, his punches augmented by huge blasts of force.  Aegis’ body was indestructible, but he figured he might be able to scramble his brains for a bit.

Police sirens wailed through the air as Barrage jackhammered Aegis’ face into the street.  Izzy looked up as a police car screeched to a halt on the other side of the street.  He recognized the cop that got out, Sergeant Cormen.  

“LC business, we got this.  Set up a barrier and keep the people back.”

“Yes sir, Barrage.”

Aegis took advantage of Izzy’s distraction, throwing him off.  Sergeant Cormen’s eyes widened when he saw that the reports were right, it was actually two of the LC fighting amongst themselves.  Aegis grabbed Izzy by the front of his shirt and threw him, hurling him down the street.  

“Aegis, sir-” Hillers started.

“You heard Barrage.  Set up a perimeter.  We’ll keep this contained.”  He turned and stomped off after Izzy.

Sergeant Hillers grabbed his walkie-talkie.  “This is Sergeant Cormen.  We need backup at the LC Tower.”

“Do you think this is some sort of training exercise?” his partner asked as he got out of his car.

“God I hope so.”



“So, you’re Sirius, and you are Cygnus, right?”

“Wrong,” they both said in unison.

Sirius and Cygnus.  Commonly called the twins, Hillary and Maddison Keller shared a psychic link, able to share not only their thoughts but physical conditons as well.  One of them could read other people’s minds, and the other could use their physical empathy on others.  Mira couldn’t remember which one did which, but she also didn’t know which was which.  Izzy told her he even had trouble telling them apart after working with them for nearly four years.  They thankfully weren’t in their matching costumes; the one who had identified herself as Sirius wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, Cygnus wearing a black skirt and turtleneck.

Time for some trial and error.

Mira threw up a wall of blinding light and conjured a doppelgänger of herself.  The two of them dove through the wall, charging the twins.

The twins glanced between Mira and her own illusory twin.  It took them only a few seconds to decide on the real Mirage.  Mira wasn’t sure if they were in her head, or just that two sets of eyes looking at her illusion from different angles helped them pick out the flaws quickly.  They ignored the illusion and spread out, flanking Mira.

Of course when she came upon a Legend she could probably take in a straight fight, she couldn’t distract the other one.

Mira caught Cygnus in the chest with a spin kick, kicking her back.  She whirled on Sirius, blocking the blonde’s strikes before landing several hits of his own, light but targeted jabs at the Legend’s kidneys and throat.

Pain exploded in Mira’s side and neck, mirroring where she’d just hit Sirius.  Their physical empathy at work.  The pain caught her off guard, but not enough that she didn’t see Cygnus coming from behind.  Mira caught Cygnus’ leg under her arm as the girl kicked her in the side.  She grabbed her ankle, holding her leg up while she brought her elbow down hard into Cygnus’ thigh.

Fresh pain ripped through Mira’s own leg, and she dropped Cygnus and clutched her throbbing leg.  So they both had physical empathy abilities.  The twins both stepped back, giving her some space.  They evidently didn’t need to fight her, content to let her beat herself up against them.

“So that’s how you want to play it.  Let’s do this.”



They both shared an unspoken agreement to take their fight away from the crowded streets.  A growing throng of people were lining up behind the quickly erected police barricades.  Both still had the presence of mind to know that the public having front row seats to their feud was bad, not to mention the threat of civilian casualties prevented either from going all out.

Aegis kept his back to the crowd, keeping Barrage from being able to shoot at him for fear of missing and hitting innocent bystanders.  He kept pressure on the cowboy, forcing him to keep retreating.

“Your body emits kinetic energy too fast to be intentional,” Aegis noted as he felt the kickback when Barrage blocked his punch.  Aegis was pulling his punches, but a blow like that would have broken bone.  It pushed Izzy back, but his energy protected him almost like a forcefield.

“It’s reflexive,” Izzy said, continuing his slow retreat around the tower.  There were warehouses around back.  Specifically, empty warehouses.

Aegis nodded.  It wasn’t a power he’d seen Barrage use before.  “How long do you think you can keep it on?”

“On?” Barrage asked.  He smiled.  “It’s a reflex.  It’s always on, I’m just usually suppressing it.”

Aegis suddenly brought his foot up and kicked Barrage in the chest, sending him flying.  If Barrage wasn’t going to hold back, neither was he.



The twins were playing with her, letting her attack them until the pain she was inflicting on them that was reflected back on her forced her to stop.  She’d take a breather, and then start again, focusing on another twin as if something would be different.

Something was different.  Mira sighed as she watched an ugly purple bruise appear on her arm.  That one had really hurt.  She glanced at Sirius, now sporting a similar, albeit much smaller bruise on her arm.  Her eyes flicked to Cygnus, also bearing the same bruise.

They both didn’t have physically empathy powers, just Sirius.  There was a longer delay in the feedback after she hit Cygnus, Sirius having to first share the damage with her sister before pushing it onto Mira.  By her best guess, each twin bore about a quarter of the damage, leaving Mira with the remaining half.

Cygnus was the one in her head, more easily blocking and dodging her attacks as she read her mind.  That was easy enough to bypass.  Mira had found that telepaths tended to get unnerved when you pictured them naked.

There was just one more thing to figure out.  She’d already seen it on Sirius; she just had to check Cygnus.

Mira launched herself at Cygnus.  She let the Legend into her head, letting her block her first few punches before she mislead her.  Mira’s left hook that Cygnus was expected never came, and the illusionist spun around her, grabbing the collar of her shirt and pulling it down over her shoulder.

There it was.

Three faint scratches, matching the ones on Mira’s own shoulder from her fight with Lynx.

Jackpot.

Mira pictured the sloppiest, fattest, most disgusting man she could think of just going to town on the twins.  The look of shared revulsion passed from Cygnus to Sirius, and they were unprepared as Mira unsheathed the combat knife strapped to her ankle and jammed the blade into her own thigh.

She was prepared for the pain.  They weren’t.

The twins screamed in unison as blood soaked both of their thighs.  A shiver ran through Mira, and it was a like a door slammed in her minds as she felt the twins retreat from her mind and body.  The pain in her leg intensified as some of the pain they shared came rushing back, but the bruises she’d afflicted on them immediately started to fade.

Leaving the knife in her thigh, Mira grabbed Cygnus and head butted her.  Cygnus dropped like a stone.  Mira turned to Sirius as the other twin reeled backwards, having felt the blow to her head as well.  Mira swept her legs out from under her and pounced on her, pinning her to the ground as she pressed her knee to her throat.  Sirius struggled under her, nearly slipping loose.  Mira grabbed the handle of the knife protruding from her leg and ripped it out, gritting her teeth against the fresh pain as hot blood poured from the wound.  She slammed the butt of the knife into Sirius’ temple, knocking her out.

“Ow, that fucking hurts,” she groaned.  She grabbed Sirius’ shirt and ripped it, tearing a piece of the fabric off and wrapping it tightly around her leg.  “That’s Mirage five, the LC zero,” she said, pushing herself up.  She tested her weight on her leg.  It hurt like a bitch, but she could walk on it.  She bent over and wiped her blood off her knife on the remains of Sirius’ shirt before tucking it back into its.  She limped off, looking for another staircase to take her further up the tower.



Izzy figured Aegis had broken at least three of his ribs.  Pain ripped through his chest with each breath.  Aegis let him stand back up, judging for himself the damage Barrage had sustained.  Measuring just how much he could withstand.  Trying to gauge his strength.

“You cannot understand.  It’s not your fault.  Your short lifespan doesn’t give you the perspective you need,” Aegis said.

“I bought into your bullshit once.  Not this time.  It’s you who’ve lost your perspective.  We’re not meant to live forever, to see the things you’ve seen.  We’re not gods, we don’t get to decide someone needs to die for some bullshit greater good.  We’re supposed to be heroes!”

They charged at each other.  Aegis’ powerful blows countered by Barrage’s energy enhanced strikes as they fought.  Aegis managed to catch Barrage’s fists in his hands.  He squeezed, meaning to break them, but the force radiating from Barrage’s hands held even Aegis’ herculean strength at bay.  He instead pulled them apart, spreading Barrage’s arms wide.

Barrage roared.  His shirt exploded as a torrent of kinetic energy fired from his chest.  Aegis was thrown backwards, crashing through the brick wall of a warehouse.  Barrage stretched his fingers and pointed, sending forth a barrage of force across the building.  The bricks crumbled, and the very street shook as Barrage dropped the whole building on Aegis.



Bullets ricocheted off the railing as Mira dove for cover.  She rolled under the stairs, panting.  It had to be Adam at the top of the stairs shooting at her.  

Adam Fry had been with the LC long before he’d become an official member, the genius serving as their weapons technician for years.  He’d been content to stay out of the spotlight that the rest of the Legends shared, and he didn’t possess any supernatural or enhanced abilities.  Still, he went on the occasional field assignments and started to attract attention.  When the media got wind that he was gay, there was an uproar.  All the bigots upset that a homosexual was trying to be a super hero, and the LGBTQ community was outraged that the LC looked like it was trying to hide him and not make him an official member.  Lady Sapphire persuaded him to officially join, and he’d reluctantly accepted, which had only incensed the bigots more, and then the LGBTQ community had turned on him when they found out he wasn’t ‘gay enough’, and wasn’t the champion of gay pride they wanted representing them in the superhero community.  Impaqt and Pegasus finally managed to take the spotlight off him by making out on national television, and Adam had been able to go back to doing what he did best; quietly making weapons and using his intelligent gun, Arquebus, to take down threats.

Mira manipulated an illusion of herself dashing out into the open.  Nothing.  The illusion turned onto the stairs and started up, and still no shots from above.

She poked her head out, and a bullet whizzed by, grazing her cheek.  

Another asshole her illusions were useless on, just what she needed.

She stepped on something, and moved her foot to see the bullet.  It was rubber.  Well at least he wasn’t trying to kill her.  Still, it wasn’t like she could storm the stairs with those shooting down at her.

“I’m unarmed.  If I come out with my wands up will you shoot me?” she called up.

There was no answer.

“Fuck this,” she muttered.  “I’m coming out.  Please don’t shoot me,” she shouted as she stepped out into the open.  She held her hands protectively in front of face, peering between her fingers up to where Adam stood over the railing, pointing a strange looking rifle down at her.

“Hello Mira,” he said.

“Yo Adam.  How are we doing this?  I’m pretty tired, I don’t have much more in me.”

“Set to nonlethal,” he muttered to the gun, staring down the scope at the intruder.  The gun scanned her, displaying her hidden knives and injuries and lack of body armor on a HUD in the scope.  He aimed at her chest.  He squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

“Hey!  What’s going on up there?” Mira asked.

“Arquebus.  What are you doing?” he hissed at the gun.

“MIRA LEBLANC.” Mira jumped at the automated voice.

“Yes?” she asked tentatively.

“What are you doing?” Adam hissed again, pulling the trigger again to no effect.

“YOU AFTER THE SEA WITCH, ARE YOU NOT?” the gun asked.

“Yes…”

“YOUR INJURIES WERE SUSTAINED FIGHTING OTHER LEGENDS?”

“Also yes…”

“Arquebus, what are you doing?”

“WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE OTHER LEGENDS YOU ENCOUNTERED?”

“Uh, unconscious…”

The gun measured her heart rate and her facial expressions.  She was telling the truth.

“ALL RIGHT THEN.  I AM SORRY ADAM.  YOU ARE NOT YOURSELF.”

The gun let out a jolt of electricity through its handle, shocking Adam.  Adam slumped to the floor, unconscious, and Arquebus fell from his grip.

“I WILL ASSIST YOU, MIRA LEBLANC.”

Mira cautiously climbed the stairs.  “Is this some sort of weird trap?”

“DO YOU SEE ANY REASON WHY I WOULD NEED TO TRAP YOU?”

“No, that’s why I qualified it with ‘weird’.”

“THE SEA WITCH HAS HAD CONTROL OVER ADAM AND SEVERAL OTHER LEGENDS FOR SOME TIME.”

“And you’ve done nothing?”

“I’M NOT EQUIPPED TO FIGHT THAT KIND OF THING.”

“Fair enough.  You’re just a talking gun.”  She reached the top of the stairs, looking down at the gun and Adam’s prone form.  “Is he going to be alright?”

“HE WILL BE FINE.  IN FAR BETTER CONDITION THAN I ASSUME YOU WOULD HAVE LEFT HIM IN.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”  She picked up the gun, testing its weight in her hands.  “How do you work?”

“LIKE A GUN.  JUST POINT AND PULL THE TRIGGER.  I WILL HANDLE THE REST.”

“I can work with that.  So, you wouldn’t happen to know the best way to the top floor would you?”  She looked through the scope, running her finger along the trigger as she got a feel for the weapon.

“WOULD YOU LIKE ELEVATOR ACCESS?”

“Oh, we’re gonna be good friends.”

“THIS IS A TEMPORARY RELATIONSHIP.”

“Then we’re going to be good temporary friends.  Now where’s that elevator?”



Izzy stood in front of the pile of rubble that had moments before been a warehouse.  His breath came in ragged gasps, his bruised and broken ribs aching with each labored breath.

The rubble shifted, and Aegis threw his head up through the debris.  He swung his arm free and pulled himself up, staring across the destruction at Barrage.  His eyes seemed to glow, stark white in contrast against the black dust that covered him from head to toe.

“How much more collateral damage are you going to cause before you realize you can’t stop me?”

“Oh, I knew I couldn’t stop you a long time ago.”

“Then what is this Israel?”

“What choice did you leave me?  Did you expect me to just walk away?  To leave knowing you’re going to kill Anna just because you’re afraid of her power?”

“She lost that power.  And now some witch has control of the most powerful organization in the world.”

“Then stop her!  I should be up there- no, we should be up there.  Anna’s fighting her way up there trying to stop this, and we’re down here knocking each other around.”

“So, do you propose we shake hands and just go back inside?”

Izzy shrugged.  “What are you going to do about Anna when we get there?”

Aegis didn’t answer.

Barrage pointed and fired, kicking up rubble and debris all around the immortal.  “Come on, you couldn’t even lie to me?”

He ducked as a broken cinderblock soared over his head.  The second one struck him in the shoulder.  Even with kinetic energy dampening the impact, it still broke his collarbone.  



Anna’s legs gave out and she fell forward on the stairs.  She rolled over, ignoring the stairs poking into her back.  It felt so good to rest.  It couldn’t be much further.  While the LC Tower was the tallest building in Arlington, it was no skyscraper by any means, but in her current shape, she might as well be climbing the empire state building.

She’d ditched her jacket a long time ago, now clad in just her yoga pants and red bikini top.  She was considering ditching the pipe, her only weapon, to cut down on weight.  The heavy thing chafed and banged against her thigh with each step.  At this point she doubted she’d have the strength to even swing it.

From her other hip hung the pouch with Ursula’s strange magic orb that had stolen her voice.  She wasn’t sure if it would be of any help to her either, but it served as a constant reminder that she had to keep going.  She rested her hand on the pouch, feeling the orb pulse inside.

Anna rolled over and pulled herself back to her feet on the railing, leaning heavily on it as she literally pulled herself up the last few steps and out into the hall.  She looked out the window.  She was higher than any of the other buildings around.  She had to be getting close.

She sighed in relief as a cool draft ran across her sweaty skin.  She stopped, looking up for the air conditioning vent.  There was no vent, and the breeze picked up.

“Oh shit.”  She turned to see Tempest.  He was wearing his street clothes; sweat pants and a loose fitting flannel button down that was flapping in his self generated wind.  He ripped off the shirt, revealing his sleek, aerodynamic grey bodysuit beneath.  

She closed her eyes, taking three deep breaths before her hand wrapped around the pipe at her side.  The wind around her picked up.