Javed

Long ago

Javed looked out at the approaching army. Did they think numbers would be enough to take a city held by the Seven Archmages?

Together, they had gathered the strongest magic in the world. The power to blast away any who stood in their path, the endurance to withstand injuries humans were never meant to survive. An inexhaustible army of the dead, empty shells who would obey their every command. None could stop their conquest.

Fire. Pelagia's command, not spoken aloud, but simply willed outward. Their army complied in perfect unison, raining arrows and spells down on the invaders. The invaders returned the favor, but it was a paltry showing. They wouldn't last.

Amenirdis's voice rang out. "Incoming!"

Javed readied his blade, just in time, as a light flashed between them. A few dozen warriors materialized, including a familiar face: General Septimus. One of the few who had fought them and lived to tell the tale.

They'd warded the city against teleportation, and breaking through that would have had costs. Costs Septimus's army would regret paying.

Blue flames washed over Septimus's group, from the direction of another one of Javed's companions, Cothelas. The flames singed the warriors' hair and armor, but didn't incinerate them like it should have. Septimus's defensive magic must have continued to improve.

Ignoring the flames, the warriors charged outward at the Archmages. Javed struck with lightning speed, cleaving one of them in half. Another reached Pelagia, who hadn't even bothered to look at them. As Pelagia watched the city's walls, the warrior's sword cut through her neck, and her head dropped to the ground.

That, it seemed, was enough to get her attention. Pelagia grabbed the warrior by the face, and he crumbled to dust. She reached down to pick up her head, then set it back onto her shoulders as the flesh below it healed.

Pelagia turned her eyes to Septimus as the last signs of the wound disappeared. "So you still don't understand what immortal means."

Septimus didn't bother responding as he dodged a hail of iron arrows called by Zoskales. His retinue was thinning out, as Javed and the others cut down more and more of the intruders. Irnina, in the form of a massive lizard, grabbed one between her teeth, Rahel simply glared at another and he fell to the ground screaming.

The last of Septimus's soldiers fell - and the general himself had made no move to attack, only to defend. Had he sacrificed his entire guard just to... buy time?

As another wave of blue flames struck him, light blazed out from Septimus, and Javed could feel something pouring outward. Was he a beacon, for a larger spell?

Javed began to feel heavy, as if some force was pulling him downward, inward. Screams came from the army outside - Javed glanced out towards the invaders, and saw that they were disintegrating. From the looks of things, it was every one of them.

A steep payment, to fuel their gambit. But what was it for?

Zoskales' arrows had finally pierced through Septimus's defenses, stabbed into him. But it wasn't enough.

"Now," Septimus growled, "DISAPPEAR."

Something pulled Javed down, into the ground, through the ground, deeper than he could have imagined. For all his strength, all his magic, he couldn't fight it.

He slammed to a stop in a chamber, lit only by the glow of magic. Pelagia was there, and Amenirdis, Cothelas, Zoskales, Irnina, and Rahel... and Septimus.

Irnina, still in lizard form, got her feet under herself, started to raise herself up. Dozens of spears of stone burst out of the ground, stabbing into her, grabbing hold of her. They pulled down, into the floor, and she was gone.

Pelagia stood over the bleeding Septimus. "What the hell is this?" she demanded.

Septimus made a noise that could have been a laugh, a cough, or both. "You wove your lives into the fabric of magic itself. Only thing we could find, to fight that... was to take away the magic itself. Put it all down here, and drag you with it."

Cothelas screamed, as the spears erupted into him. Javed and Amenirdis were closest to him, they hurled spells at the spears - and it wasn't enough. Moments later, he, too, was pulled through the floor.

"Make it stop!" Pelagia shouted.

Septimus laughed. "I can't. We'll all be absorbed, soon. Just let it happen."

The next round of stone spears stabbed into Septimus. He relaxed, smiled, and disappeared.

"I can't feel any of them anymore," Pelagia hissed. "It's like a storm around us, so strong that we'll unravel. We have to fight this."

The room wasn't so quick to seek a fourth victim, and when it did, they were ready. It was a matter of will, they concluded before long. The less someone cared about staying free, the more aggressively it came after them.

Their power was dulled, still significant but never enough to let them blast a path to escape. It was difficult to track time down there, but the five of them must have fought for at least a year, before Rahel began to tire.

"Why bother?" she asked. "What does any of this even matter anymore?"

"We deserve the world!" Amenirdis shouted. "We became stronger than everyone, we have to take what we earned!"

"Maybe we never did," Rahel murmured.

The next time the spears came for her, none of them could fend them off.

The more time passed, the further away salvation felt. The four of them began to think more about the present - settling in, enjoying each others' company, but never losing sight of the return to glory that kept them going.

After a few hundred years, Zoskales began to lose hope.

"It's been nice, having this time with you all," he said. "But if this is all there is... I think I'm done."

"Zos, no," Javed urged. "We need you with us, when we get out!"

Zoskales smiled. "I'll be with you, when you join me."

Before long, he was gone.

Only three of them were left. Javed, Amenirdis, and Pelagia vowed never to abandon each other, never to stop fighting until they'd reached their goal. They kept fighting, for unimaginably long, until...

"I feel something," Pelagia said.

Whatever had sealed the magic down there with them, it was starting to crack, to leak. Not enough for them to get out, but enough for them to begin reaching out for the outside world, projecting figments of themselves there, to see how it had changed.

Over the course of more years, the cracks expanded, to the point where people on the surface began to access the magic themselves. They didn't all call it magic, they called it other things, and it worked differently for them - people's interactions with it had changed as people had changed. But some of the people touched by it became vulnerable, targets they could influence in different ways.

They made plans for how they could use the sealed power, for how they might finish breaking it soon enough that they'd still be the strongest force around. They found targets to reach out to, developed identities they could assume to persuade them. Javed's targets included a man who called himself Sniper, to whom he appeared as an angel named Muriel. With the right words, the right suggestions, Sniper got on board.

They'd all played their parts, and it was time to see it through. Soon they would be gods once more.

---

Radha

Radha glared at a wall. The others had gotten moving, while she was stuck in headquarters. She wasn't sure she wanted to fight, but it would have been nice if they'd at least offered. Instead of treating her like...

...Okay, fine, they did have reasons not to trust her. But she'd been doing what they'd wanted, hadn't she? Using all the words Cygnus had demanded, and she hadn't tried to punch Fenrir once.

It felt like she was selling her soul again. Compared to Fenrir's complicated gender bullshit, simpler genders like Cygnus's were starting to sound almost reasonable.

Not that she'd admit it out loud. She still had some dignity to cling to.

---

Andre

"This time," Andre said, "we stick together. If things go wrong, I'm the only one who can handle you."

Fenrir nodded. "Yeah. Of course."

Does she mean that? Or will she go off on her own anyway, as soon as she gets an idea for something else to do?

According to Tameka's intel, Hamilton had split its forces across several roads. Seraph had split up the defenders to cover their bases as well as they could: Seraph and Neodym were in the east, Flashstep, Chroma, and Mirage stayed in the center, and he was with Fenrir and August to the west. August was there to manage their third of the militia, given the lack of actual bluecapes present.

The three of them were in a car together, August sitting in the front with the driver. August wore a nemenon bodysuit beneath his regular body armor - the first time Andre had seen a non-cape wearing it. It was odd, thinking about how much of the capes' strength came not from their powers themselves, but the gear they were able to access because of those powers. Raised some uncomfortable questions.

"Take the next right," August was saying. "Up this street and... pull over up there."

The car stopped, and Andre and Fenrir got out. Soldiers were arrayed around the street, setting up fortifications, watching for movement from the north. More were arriving, reinforcing the area where the attack was expected.

Some eyes landed on the two of them. Andre wasn't sure how many people realized the woman with him was Fenrir. It'd probably put them on edge, if they knew.

A year ago, Cincinnati's population had been five times that of Hamilton's. But people and borders had moved, and become harder to keep track of. Plus, red cities seemed to have proportionally more weapons and more people interested in fighting than blue ones. Still, defending is easier than attacking. We should have the upper hand in a head-to-head fight... but what are they even going for?

From near the car, August's voice rang out. "They're here!"

Trucks came into view down the road, barreling towards them. Cincinnati's militia began to fire, and soldiers in Hamilton's trucks did the same. Noise and smoke began to fill the area.

"Should I go?" Fenrir asked.

"Not yet," Andre replied.

It was tempting, but there was no sense in overextending into what could be a trap. Even if it could shut things down a bit faster, it would mean risking their best fighter, one who'd proven unreliable on her own.

Many of the militia members around them looked uneasy, some on the verge of panic. They've probably never seen real combat before, Andre recalled. Or had training good enough to really prepare for this.

Andre looked to August, and-

Something struck his left shoulder, reverberated through his body. He fell to the ground - why? The nemenon should have protected him from...

His mind went back over the sensation. An electric shock.

Fenrir was over him, grabbing his shoulders. "Cygnus! You okay?"

"I'm fine," Andre grunted. The numbness was wearing off, he pulled himself back up. "But Sniper's here."

---

Helen

Helen rode towards Cincinnati, Brandon behind her on the motorcycle. They'd sat the opposite way on their last trip here, but Brandon wasn't sure his ribs had healed enough for it to be a good idea.

According to Sniper, there were three locations they needed to reach, that were somehow linked to the powers of the capes in Cincinnati. Roadripper and Cybermind had worked together to make some sort of device that could interact with those locations - by getting one to each spot and turning them all on at the same time, they could de-power all the associated capes at once. Unfortunately, the devices were too large for Cybermind's drones to carry, or Helen's gargoyles for that matter. So they'd had to take the ground route.

It'd be a hassle, but once they were finished, there would be no one to stop them from completing their takeover of the city.

In the meantime, Sniper had dispatched troops to protect similar locations in Hamilton, to keep their own powers safe. Apparently Cybermind was in the clear since she hadn't gained her powers in Cincinnati, she'd just come there to join Inferno's band of feminazis. Helen wasn't sure how Roadripper and Cybermind had figured all this out, but it was great that they had.

They came in sight of the factory where they'd fought the last time. The last place where they'd seen the real Bladewhirl. The soldiers ahead had stopped, and Helen pulled over.

"Sculptor! Phantasm!" a soldier greeted them - a captain, she recognized. "The liberals are holed up ahead."

"Well," Helen said, "we'll just have to dislodge them. I trust all my pets made it here intact?"

"Of course, ma'am." The captain looked towards a group of vans nearby, and Helen followed his gaze. "They're right over there."

"Perfect." Helen headed over, finding each of the gargoyles just the way she'd left them. She touched each of them, returning her power to them, and they leaped back into action.

She and Roadripper had upgraded this batch, building in powered claws that could tear through nemenon. She scratched one behind the ears, and it made a delighted purr.

Helen returned to Brandon, gargoyles in tow. The shooting had started - not that it would matter to either of them. They had nemenon, and real weapons.

"All good?" Brandon asked.

Helen grinned beneath her mask. "You bet. Let's give 'em hell."

---

Jasmine

Jasmine hovered above the city's buildings, watching the eastern advance through binoculars. She spotted familiar shapes, floating above Hamilton's vehicles. Three of them.

"I see drones," she said into her comms. "Looks like we've got Cybermind."

"Good," Neodym replied. "I can handle her tech."

Jasmine swooped down to join Neodym and the militia around him. Neodym was on the front lines, using his magnetism power to deflect incoming bullets as he joined the militia in returning fire.

Something flew towards them - Neodym raised a hand towards it, but the trajectory didn't change. It exploded into a burst of light and heat, scattering the militia members near it. Radiance's power.

Jasmine reached for the nearest soldier, healing her burns as well as she could in the moments she could spare. But she was here as a commander and a fighter, not as a medic. She couldn't put all her time into helping the mundane militia, they'd keep getting hurt faster than she could heal them.

Once she caught sight of the yellow and orange of Radiance's costume, Jasmine flew towards her, extending the baton she carried. Bullets shattered against her as she jabbed the baton into Radiance's stomach, reaching out with the other side of her power to turn Radiance's body against itself. Radiance howled in pain as the power took hold, inflicting whatever harm it could.

Jasmine returned to the air to prepare for her next strike. She was safe from bullets, but not from being grabbed. Above her, Neodym fired a metal rod towards a drone, nicking it but not taking it down.

A voice spoke into her comms - not Neodym, but one of her soldiers. "A lone motorcycle broke through Point C! We're in pursuit, but they've got a drone!"

A drone? Cybermind? Point C was another spot they were defending, one street to the west, so it sounded like she'd abandoned the front line to go deeper into the city. But why?

"I'm going after it," Jasmine said. "Neodym will oversee Point B."

Jasmine flew back, in pursuit of the motorcycle.

---

Isaac

"They're close enough," Cygnus said. "Let's do this."

I shut my eyes, and willed my body to just... stop. My amalgamated body crumbled, giving way to my werewolf form once more. I leaped towards Hamilton's forces, and Cygnus followed.

Bullets crashed against us - not enough to hurt either Cygnus or myself. I slashed at the soldiers in reach, trying to aim for arms, for legs, for weapons when I could. We couldn't afford to waste time, but I didn't want to go for more killing blows than necessary. Didn't seem fair.

In any case, it was working. Hamilton's militia looked more combat-ready than Cincinnati's, but they still weren't keen on getting mauled by a giant wolf monster. Soldiers began to flee, even as their commanders shouted demands to stay. Behind me, Cygnus swung his whip, pinning down stragglers left in my wake.

More gunshots. Something punched into my stomach, this time tearing into it. And the familiar jolt of Sniper's electricity - I could handle it, in this form, but it was a lot less pleasant from inside.

I scanned my surroundings as another one of his bullets hit me, this time piercing my right leg. I growled, my eyes finally latching onto the blurred figure by a truck a ways off. Sniper's weapon reminded me a bit of the thing Roadripper had used to blow my head off, but narrower. Probably built for longer range than Roadripper's, but not as long as a regular rifle, given that he'd shot Cygnus with a normal bullet earlier.

"I said, get back here!" Sniper was shouting as he reloaded. Not to anyone near him, from the looks of things, so probably his comms. "It's Fenrir!"

So there was another redcape nearby, but they weren't here, and Sniper wasn't confident he could handle us without them. Perfect.

I charged toward Sniper, another one of his bullets catching me as I moved - this time in the chest. No deeper than the ribcage, I was pretty sure, but... I couldn't keep taking hits like this.

Sniper aimed again, this time towards my face, and-

He jerked as the gun fired, and the bullet pierced my left shoulder. Safe, but it'd make it harder to use that arm. And even without hitting vitals, all these shocks couldn't be good for me.

Sniper looked off balance, like someone who'd been hit by Cygnus's power. Cygnus had used his own gun, I realized.

Sniper hauled himself into the nearby truck, but he'd wasted too much time - I was close, by now. Before the driver could get moving, I tore the passenger door off its hinges, and reached past the door to dig my claws into the man behind it.

Soldiers around me screamed as I ripped Sniper out of the car and slammed him to the ground. I pulled my claws back from him, tearing larger holes in Sniper as they left. I didn't think he was moving anymore.

Hamilton's soldiers were fleeing from the area, and I had wounds that needed healing. I picked up Sniper, taking bite after bite out of him. Once I have my new body, I can go after the cape we lost track of. Maybe cause some chaos in their command structure, too.

I swallowed the last pieces of Sniper, then shrunk back down to take his form. I got back to my feet, and-

Hello, Fenrir, a deep voice spoke into my head. Not Pandora's voice, but one that Sniper's body recognized. You didn't think this through, did you?

I opened my mouth to call to Cygnus, but my throat locked up. I fell to the ground, spasms running through my body.

He connected through Sniper's power. The one who went after Madison. Muriel.

Indeed, Muriel said. You borrow people's strengths, but also their weaknesses. Now, be a good girl and stay out of the way.

---

Wyatt

Wyatt raised a palm towards the Hamilton soldiers and sent a beam of red light towards them. Red was usually his go-to: the heat packed quite a punch.

It almost felt like bringing Cincinnati's militia hadn't been worth the trouble. They faced most of the danger from Hamilton's mundane troops, so it was tempting to imagine that without them, Wyatt and the other bluecapes could have ignored the invading soldiers and kept their attention on the redcapes.

It wasn't true, of course. They weren't completely safe, and he, Flashstep, and Mirage couldn't have held off both capes and a mundane army on their own. But it would have been nice if they could.

August's voice spoke into Wyatt's headset. "Fenrir took out Sniper. Still no eyes on Roadripper."

Fenrir had killed Sniper? Shouldn't have been too surprising, Wyatt supposed, with Fenrir's strength and the way the redcapes had split their forces. But if Roadripper wasn't protecting Sniper, where was he?

That was for the other teams to figure out, he concluded. Weird as the situation was, it was good news, and he had his own fight to focus on. Wyatt sent out another red beam, and more Hamilton soldiers dropped.

With a shrieking sound, three shapes flew towards them. Sculptor's gargoyles, he realized. He fired a blue beam at the closest one - he'd gotten the impression that they were more vulnerable to cold than to heat. The gargoyle stiffened slightly, but kept moving.

Wyatt stepped back. Mirage had made an illusionary duplicate of him, and he allowed it to take his place. The gargoyle paused to claw at the illusion, giving Wyatt a chance to blast it again, as nearby soldiers fired at it.

Still not enough. It looked sturdier than the ones he'd faced before, and with some sort of mechanical claws on its hands and feet. That could be a problem.

Realizing it wasn't its real prey, the gargoyle abandoned the illusion and flew towards the real Wyatt. Its claws slashed across his right arm, tearing past his armor. The pain threw off his aim, and the beam struck a nearby soldier. One of the ones on his side.

Fuck, I'm supposed to be safe from those immortal creeps and I still can't avoid friendly fire?

Wyatt raised his left hand to try again, and the gargoyle raked its claws down that arm as well. As he howled in pain, a flash of light collided with the gargoyle - he recognized it as a shot from Mirage's blaster.

"Chroma!" Mirage called out. "You okay?"

Wyatt hauled both of his hands up and sent two blue beams into the gargoyle. It went as still as a normal statue and crashed to the ground, one wing snapping off. Soldiers descended upon it - one stomped down on an arm, breaking it off as well.

"I can still fight," Wyatt groaned. Probably. Maybe. And that was just one of them?

Mirage was facing the second gargoyle, he saw. She kept moving as she fired, illusions splitting off to distract it. The third was chasing Flashstep, as he teleported around and harried it with an energy blade. But where were the actual-

Something appeared out of a wall near Mirage, swinging its own blade as it materialized. Phantasm. The blade cut across Mirage's leg, giving the gargoyle an opening to dig its claws into her shoulder.

Flashstep teleported to Mirage, then grabbed her and disappeared. Phantasm and the gargoyle turned their attention to Wyatt.

Phantasm's got injured ribs, right?

Holding his shaking hands forward, Wyatt fired a pair of green beams - increased raw force. One missed, but the other struck Phantasm in the chest, and he shouted in pain. A moment later, the other gargoyle's claws sunk into Wyatt's back, and it was his turn to shout again.

Flashstep reappeared, offering a hand to Wyatt. He took it, and in another flash of light, the two were a ways back from the battlefield. Mirage was with them, bleeding from her leg and shoulder.

Ahead, militia members were breaking ranks and fleeing. The two remaining gargoyles tore into whoever they could find - joined by blaster shots that had to be from Sculptor herself.

"We can't hold this area," Flashstep said. "And I don't want you two ending up like me."

Wyatt nodded. They'd be able to regroup further back. At least it's not a residential area. Who's gonna care about an old factory?

Flashstep turned to address the militia.

"FALL BACK!" he shouted.

---

Monica

Monica rode ahead, deeper into Cincinnati proper. The drone flying alongside her watched the other way, sending a feed of her pursuers and firing whenever its program detected a a good shot.

She'd disabled most of the vehicles following her, by now, and Seraph had declined to pull back more from the front lines. Instead, she was giving chase herself - she could fly over buildings, but she was slower than the motorcycle, and Monica had a head start.

It helped that Seraph didn't know where she was going. Monica accounted for that, picking turns that would keep making Seraph change direction rather than letting her stick to a straight line.

Sniper was dead. That was fine, it could even be an advantage - but probably not. Fenrir's group had control of the area, getting back there would be inconvenient. Roadripper was sticking with his original target, and he'd get there soon.

Monica pulled up to her own destination. The place where Nitroforce had died, where the menace that killed Camilla had been born. She unloaded the box from her motorcycle and set it down on the street, right in the location Sniper had described.

She tapped her wrist, sending the signal of a successful delivery. According to her helmet's display, Sculptor had sent hers as well, as had the troops they'd deployed to various red zones.

Now all they needed was Roadripper.

---

Isaac

I could feel Muriel reaching into my limbs, trying to take control of them, but failing. Whatever kind of compatibility he had with Sniper, it thankfully wasn't that kind. I kept slipping out of his grasp, going into more spasms instead.

Cygnus stood over me. I wasn't sure how long this was taking.

"I've confirmed that Roadripper slipped past our lines," August said. "You need to go after him."

"Seraph told me to keep an eye on Fenrir," Cygnus argued. "If the immortals got to her again, who knows how many more problems she could cause if I'm not there to kick her ass. Send someone else."

Thanks, Cygnus. Love you too.

"There is no one else!" August snapped. "Flashstep's group had to fall back from the factory after Chroma and Mirage got hurt, Seraph's chasing after Cybermind, and Neodym's fighting Radiance on the other side of the city!"

"Figure something out," Cygnus said. "Even if I could catch up, my power's not well suited to fighting Roadripper's tech. If you're that desperate, how about Artemis?"

"We're not fielding Artemis!" August insisted. "You should know why better than anyone!"

I tuned out the argument, shifting my attention back to Muriel. He'd stopped talking, but if our minds were connected, could I drag more information out of him?

I felt his presence looming over me, so much closer than the simple conversations with Pandora. I couldn't move my body, couldn't seem to affect it at all, but if I reached my mind back into his...

Images flooded into my vision. An ancient army, made of walking corpses. Energy flowing along a massive web, into the figures it touched, with a handful of glowing figures at the center. Cybermind taking some sort of device from one of Roadripper's motorcycles, setting it up on a familiar street.

The place where I ate Nitroforce. And they just took control of the factory where I ate Bladewhirl. And... we're on the west side of the city, which is where I ate Inferno.

This isn't about places where cracks formed on their own, like the park I went to with Carapace. They're going for places where I made new ones.

What are you doing? Get out of there!

Muriel shoved me out of his mind - and himself out of mine. I felt my body - Sniper's body - return to my control.

"Fenrir?" Cygnus asked. "You doing better?

"Roadripper," I gasped. "He's going for... where Inferno died. They're all... the places where I..."

I couldn't wait, Muriel could be back any moment. While I still had enough control to do it, I stopped my new body's heart.

Sniper's form crumbled, and the wolf emerged. Two transformations in a row, I still wasn't sure if that meant increased risk of going berserk. Fortunately, there were plenty of bodies around. I grabbed a fallen Hamilton soldier and tucked their corpse under my left shoulder, just in case I needed a snack.

With my right hand, I pointed south, then to Cygnus, then to my back.

Cygnus nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."

He climbed on and linked his arms around my neck. I wasn't sure if he'd lowered his weight again, I was so strong in this form that it was hard to tell.

Cygnus in tow, I ran south, in my best guess about the right direction. As we moved, dread began to creep in. Is there any chance that we'll get there in time?

The ground began to rumble. Earthquakes weren't unheard of in Ohio, but...

Blocks ahead, a huge beam of white light shot up, towards the sky. I glanced left, to the east - two more beams were visible, over the tops of buildings.

Fuck, fuck, fuck-

Another rumble, and the earth screamed.