Act 5

Jasmine

Jasmine's eyes scanned the laptop screen, over the shoulder of the woman she'd come to rely on far more than she'd ever wanted to. For her help with coordinating the battle and evacuation earlier in the day, the current efforts to resettle and support the people who had fled, and now this.

"I don't know who's running their social media now," Tameka said. "But someone agreed to talk."

Jasmine nodded. "Well, it's worth a shot."

She dialed the listed number into her phone. After a few rings, it picked up.

"Is this Seraph?" the person on the other end growled. Considering the possibilities, it wasn't hard to identify the voice.

"Yes," Jasmine replied. "Hello, Sculptor."

"What the hell do you want?" Sculptor asked.

"I want to kill those things you unleashed," Jasmine replied. "We're going after them at noon tomorrow. You should do the same, we'll have the best odds if we can split their forces."

"Oh, I saw that video you put out," Sculptor said. "That call to rally as many people as possible for your big attack. But I notice you're suggesting separate operations. Bluecapes get to work with you directly, get protections from Anima - but redcapes are expected to go on our own. I've never been into seeing color, so that hardly sounds fair to me."

"You invaded us," Jasmine retorted. "Hours ago. Thousands of people have died. No, I'm not fucking fighting side by side with you."

"So you're asking us to be cannon fodder, then?" Sculptor asked, her tone mocking. "Have us flail around and die as a distraction for the liberals?"

"Oh, I'd love that," Jasmine said. "If you have a better strategy, go ahead. Fight more carefully, find your own protection power - that's your business. But I won't deny that I'd be happy to see you all die helping us clean up the mess you caused."

"Go fuck yourself." A beep followed, as Sculptor hung up.

It wasn't the most diplomatic way to put it, but Jasmine doubted pretty words would have helped. Sculptor and her people were still their enemies, they'd been trying to kill each other earlier in the day, and there was no point in trying to hide what that meant. Desperate times could force a truce, but that wouldn't override everything else.

They'd taken in Artemis. But she, at least, had surrendered on her own initiative and disavowed her past allies.

"So," Tameka drawled, "should we put them down as a maybe?"

---

Radha

Radha checked the settings of the laser she'd finally regained. She put it on the lowest power setting, and the shortest duration.

Anima touched Radha's arm, then joined Cygnus behind her as Radha felt the power enhancement return. With her vision fully sharpened again, Radha focused on the target markings on the far wall, and fired.

Seven shots in all. She moved closer, to examine the resulting scorch marks. Better accuracy than she'd feared, but worse than when she'd still had her favorite eye. Probably good enough for combat.

"Not bad," Cygnus remarked.

"I hope it holds up," Radha said.

Radha stepped back, giving Cygnus the chance to take... to take his turn. Radha was trying to stick to that even in her head, to avoid voicing an embarrassing slip-up.

It wasn't just about embarrassment, she knew. She'd been an asshole to Cygnus, and she didn't want to repeat that, now that she'd figured out how to think of him as a person again rather than an avatar of evil. Even so, the fear of embarrassment felt like the easiest motivator.

Cygnus raised his rifle, and fired. His first few shots were less accurate than Radha's, but his later ones improved.

As Cygnus practiced, Anima gave a wave, and left the room. She had a lot to do, Radha knew, and little reason to stick around.

And Radha was lucky either of them were willing to spend time around her in the first place. She'd been so stupid, talking like that to Anima - Cygnus was right, she should have known better - and she'd said much worse to him. And even as she told herself that, she felt another part of herself saying who cares what any of them think, fuck all of them and their feelings. The part that wanted to drag her back to acting like Camilla, like... Monica, who was gone too, now.

Cygnus turned back from his practice. "This thing's a bit different, but I think I got the hang of it."

Radha nodded. "That's good."

A question bubbled to mind, something that had been bothering her. Radha began to gesture for Cygnus's attention, then stopped as she thought better of it.

"Something the matter?" Cygnus asked.

"Never mind," Radha said. "It's not the time."

Cygnus groaned. "Whatever horribly inappropriate thing you want to ask, just get it over with."

Radha winced, but didn't argue. "I just... I'm still confused by how you're like, constantly thinking about this stuff, watching out for people saying the wrong words. Doesn't that get tiring?"

"I mean... it would?" Cygnus said. "But that's... look, you're the one constantly thinking about trans stuff. The rest of us get dragged into arguments about it because we're around you. Most of the time I get to just. Be a guy."

Radha blinked. That couldn't be right, could it? The angrier part of herself wanted to insist that it was wrong, but... it did fit how she'd seen Cygnus and Fenrir interacting with the others.

She still didn't understand why Cygnus would want something like this. But if the other capes could keep up, Radha couldn't keep letting them outdo her. Her pride wouldn't allow it.

"I... never really thought about it that way," Radha finally got out.

Was she supposed to apologize? Tossing out the word sorry didn't feel suitable, here. Like it would amount to little more than asking forgiveness from Cygnus, at a time when Radha didn't want to ask more from him. She hoped she was finding other ways to get the point across.

Cygnus looked away. "Well, now you know."

Without another word, he left. Radha let out a breath - she did want to try to mend things with Cygnus, and he clearly wanted the same, but there was so much baggage to get through.

And there were more people she'd hurt than Cygnus. Her involvement with the doxxing, then with Rudianos... even if she made it through this and got back on good terms with Cygnus, she wouldn't be able to go back to working as a cape here, maybe not anywhere. The only reason Seraph was letting her walk around the city she'd rebelled against - armed, even - was the scale of the ongoing emergency. Nothing would just go back to how it had been before.

Alone in the training area, Radha sat down on a folding chair, and closed her eye.

---

Isaac

Concerned Hana: are you both okay?

madison (she/her): yeah we both made it out of the danger zones

madison (she/her): idk whats gonna happen from here though

madison (she/her): its really bad

Concerned Hana: that's good at least. stay safe

Concerned Hana: you too isaac

CROCODILE TAMER: man i knew conservatives were down with the end of the world but i didn't think they'd go for this

CROCODILE TAMER: unless they're getting oil from it somehow

CROCODILE TAMER: then it tracks

madison (she/her): yeah :/

carlos: if they are, i want some

CROCODILE TAMER: carlos do not take the evil monster oil

carlos: it might be worth it

I looked away from the messages without responding. Shane wasn't wrong about Hamilton's role, but... he didn't know that I'd been a part of it, too.

Madison had been polite enough to not mention that detail. And I didn't want to bring it up either, not yet. But with that hanging over me, the idea of talking to them at all made me feel sick.

The door beside me opened, and Flashstep emerged. He was awake again, but limping. From the sound of things, his prosthetic leg didn't always fully get along with him. At least that's one thing that wasn't my fault, probably.

As he passed, Flashstep did a double take, recognizing my current form - the Hamilton soldier I'd grabbed off the battlefield. "Hey, Fenrir. You holding up?"

"Well enough," I said.

Here, everyone knew. No one had brought it up, but... they seemed wary of me, even more than usual. Maybe it was my imagination. But I'd feel weird around me too, in their place.

But if I didn't want to have to worry about that...

I got up from my seat, then avoided looking at anyone while I exited the restaurant-headquarters. There was supposed to be a warehouse near here, where... ah, there it was.

Artemis was inside, wearing her armor but not her helmet. She seemed to have been resting in a chair, but opened her eye as I approached.

"Fenrir," Artemis grumbled. "What do you want now?"

"We sure fucked up, huh?" I remarked.

"Yes." Artemis's voice was strained, as if it pained her to agree with anything I said. "What's your point?"

"Feels weird, being around people, after being a huge shithead." I glanced around the otherwise-unoccupied room. "Looks like you know the feeling. So, I wanted to say hi to the only person here who's been an even bigger shithead than me."

Artemis scowled. "Is that how you see it?"

"Well, I really shouldn't have gone along with Pandora like that," I admitted. "But I still didn't join a hate group. So, yeah, I'll say that."

"If you're just here to talk down to me," Artemis growled, "then go away. I am doing my best to respect your... gender stuff... but I still don't like you."

I put my hands up in surrender. "Fair, fair. What if I stop doing that?"

Artemis let out a long sigh. "If you want to chat that much, fine. But I thought you hated me."

"I hated the you that was with Labrys." I sat down, in another chair near Artemis. "But... if you're trying to do better, that matters. I still think you're an asshole, but I don't have the same kind of personal stake in that as Cygnus does."

It was still an if. But it was an if I was willing to run with, now.

"Really," Artemis drawled. "Not gonna accuse me of a transphobic hate crime for cutting your arm off, then?"

"Oh, that totally counts," I said. "But I've had worse deaths - like Wyvern's acid. Plus, I did get you back for it."

Artemis touched the scar below her eyepatch. "You did. Shame most of us can't regenerate."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Look, I won't apologize for that. We needed to stop you. But, given that you ended up bailing and becoming somewhat less shitty... I'm glad you survived that fight."

"Hm," Artemis grunted. "God, you would have eaten me. Eugh."

"And then had to come back to Cygnus wearing your face," I added. "We can all be glad it didn't come to that."

Artemis put her face in her hands, then made a sound that could have been a laugh. "Your power sure is messed up, huh?"

"Tell me about it." I gestured upward, across my current body. "Look at this shit. I have to wear some conservative guy again."

That time, Artemis definitely laughed. Before saying anything else, she breathed in, moved her hands to her lap, and exhaled.

"You know," I continued, "I used to talk all sorts of shit about Hercules. How he tried to be the big damn hero and turned out to be an idiot who broke everything."

Artemis gave me a careful look. "Hmm."

"Guess it's an easier mistake than I thought," I said.

Artemis's eye narrowed further, and I finally realized how baffled she had to be at the comparison. Other transfems might be more averse to it, I supposed. But I didn't feel the need to care about Hercules' gender, and I'd already missed the boat on respectability.

"I guess it is," she agreed.

Whatever she'd thought of the comparison, she'd found the restraint not to say it, and that seemed like a good sign.

Artemis took another breath, then frowned, looking away.

"I can't believe she's gone, too," she murmured.

Sirona? No, wait. "Cybermind?"

Artemis nodded. "She didn't deserve... that."

Her expression was nervous, guilty. But I still had to respond.

"She caused this, working alongside a literal neo-Nazi," I argued. "If anyone deserved it, she did."

Artemis flinched, scowling further. "Maybe no one deserves it, then."

"Fair enough," I admitted.

I couldn't feel bad about what had happened to Cybermind. But it wasn't something to celebrate, either, no matter how awful someone was. My power had given me an affinity for tit-for-tat fighting, but it wouldn't do to forget that.

We sat like that, a while longer, until it was time to turn our attention back towards tomorrow.

---

August

August watched the capes file into the morning meeting. Just the usual crowd, for now - at least, what had become usual lately. Bluecapes from other cities would be arriving over the coming hours, to receive Anima's protections before setting off to target other parts of the immortals' forces.

In the meantime, it was worth having one last relatively private talk. One away from the ears of other cities.

Anima lifted a hand that had been on Mirage's shoulder. "Looks like the protections haven't broken down since I set them yesterday. But..."

"But we haven't had a chance to test them in practice," Seraph finished. "We'll have to find out once the first capes reach a monster zone. We'll monitor them, and wait to see how it goes before sending anyone else in."

August spoke up. "We need to be mindful of the zones regardless. Anima can modify powers, but she can't do anything for those of us who aren't capes, so my men will have to do what they can from outside."

"Of course," Seraph agreed. "We've plotted out the areas to watch out for."

The fact that Lelti and her monsters could move freely within the danger areas meant that dislodging them would require sending capes in after them. But the militia could, at least, help them get there.

It wouldn't be a pleasant job. They'd taken plenty of losses yesterday, and the survivors were shaken by the ordeal. There was plenty of determination around, but also fear. And once again, it would be the weak sacrificing themselves to support the strong.

August glanced at Tameka, the only other non-cape in the room. Her eyes were glued to the laptop that seemed like a part of her, monitoring the situation elsewhere. August touched the phone in his pocket, confirming it was still there, ready to let him know if his own personnel learned of an emergency.

This wasn't a council of the most experienced or clever minds around. Most of the capes, he'd noticed, had little idea what they were doing beyond intuition and guesswork. But being allowed to stand beside them required being exceptional.

Modern leaders, chosen by the luck of who stumbled into powers. Except... luck was clearly a factor, but it couldn't be all chance. Spending enough time around capes made that clear.

Cygnus, Sirona, Cybermind. Plenty of capes had powers that called on particular skills, and so often, those powers would show up on people who already had the foundations for those skills. At the very least, it seemed that people who got powers would develop ones that suited them. But at the same time, so many of those powers functioned wholly or in part to inflict violence. To say out loud that powers suited their users would not have kind implications about capes like Rudianos, Inferno, or Fenrir.

August was in little position to talk, he supposed. He'd been a soldier even in the old world. But it was hard to shake the feeling that powers often went to those who shouldn't have them.

"So," Neodym remarked, "say this all works out. Then what? Will the other cities even give us a chance to rebuild?"

"That's a good question," Seraph admitted. "It's not the most pleasant thing to think about, but we already had problems, and this has made things worse. Defeating the immortals is our priority, but there could be troubles afterward, even from the bluecapes we're inviting in as allies. We'll need to prepare for those possibilities as well."

"On that note," Cygnus said, "we need to think carefully about our options, here."

Cygnus fixed his eyes on Fenrir.

"Some new possibilities have opened up," he continued. "To get through this, what exactly is on the table?"

---

Brandon

Brandon let out an agonizing breath as his ribs burned. He'd convinced himself that he was fine, that he was everything Sniper needed from him. And...

And it had all been meaningless. Sniper had died in the initial assault, along with God-knew-how-many soldiers. All so that Roadripper and Cybermind could use that tech they'd built, that had ended up killing both of them. Or worse.

Along with leaving the rest of them in the midst of a new nightmare. Brandon hadn't gotten to see much of it himself, he'd spent as much of the escape as he could lying down. But it sounded horrible.

Two sets of footsteps approached the room, both familiar ones. Helen - Sculptor - walked into the room first, flanked by Radiance.

"It's time," Helen murmured.

"Noon already?" Brandon asked.

"Almost," Helen said. "The libs will be on the move soon, and so will our folks."

Brandon breathed in, trying not to make it a big enough breath to add to the pain. "Are you two... ready?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," Helen admitted. "I... don't know what's going to happen."

"Hey," Radiance protested. "No quitter talk. We go in with our heads held high, all right?"

Brandon gave a slight nod, shifting his head against his pillow. "Okay. Good luck."

Helen grasped his left hand with both of hers, and locked eyes with him. "Thanks. And you, too. Keep it together back here."

"Of course." Brandon put on the most reassuring smile he could. "See you."

"See you, Brandon." With her own warm smile, Helen released his hand. Behind her, Radiance gave a small wave.

The two of them stepped out of the room. Brandon shut his eyes, trying to hold on to the sound of the footsteps for as long as he could, until they faded into silence.

---

Andre

Andre walked alongside the rest of Cincinnati's strike team. Seraph, Flashstep, Chroma, Mirage, Neodym, Fenrir, Anima, and Radha.

They were all fighting, this time, even the two who had stayed at headquarters yesterday. They needed Anima on hand for her ability to enhance their powers on the fly, and... hopefully Radha would keep behaving. He'd hoped, so many times, that she'd come around eventually, and he was glad she seemed to be doing so, but... it would take time, for that specter to keep shrinking.

Which still left one cape absent. Andre's hands clenched, as he thought of Sirona.

They had come to an agreement about how to approach the upcoming challenges. Time would tell if they'd made the right calls. And hopefully they'd even live long enough to find out.

After that, they had met with the capes joining their effort directly. Brigid had come from Louisville, along with most of her crew. They'd formed a strike team with the arrivals from another nearby blue city, the one formerly known as Columbus. It was called Ramsay, now, to break from the old name's sordid history. Redcapes, of course, still insisted on its old name.

Further cities had sent smaller numbers, but it worked out to enough for eight teams in all. Some visitors had brought weapons or other capetech, and they pooled the devices together to equip the teams as well as possible. The capes weren't the only arrivals: they'd also gotten reinforcements for the militia. Having them contribute would be more of a challenge, but they'd brought plenty of new kinds of equipment, even if some of it would be tricky to put to use.

Together, they'd be making approaches on several parts of Cincinnati under Lelti's control, and if it worked, they'd follow by pushing further north. And... maybe there would be redcapes joining in from the other direction, if they felt like doing the right thing for once.

The group moved towards the westernmost of the five monster zones in Cincinnati: the one Andre had been to, where if he and Fenrir had stayed any longer, they would have met the same fate as Sirona. Thankfully, no more of the zones had formed yet, but the immortals' forces were becoming active again. Sounded like they, too, had finished readying themselves after the previous day.

Seraph hovered at the front of the pack. She was staying low to the ground, to avoid drawing the attention of the thunderclouds above. Chroma and Radha flanked her, followed by Mirage, Neodym, Flashstep, and Andre himself. Anima had fallen to the back of the group, and Fenrir had joined her. Further back, their militia contingent followed.

Andre and the two troublemakers were supposed to stay together as best as they could. Which wasn't unreasonable, given that he was basically sponsoring both Radha and Fenrir and had proven to be the best at wrangling them, but it did make for an odd team.

As they reached the last few blocks before the edge of the monster zone, Tameka's voice spoke up in Andre's headset. "Team D has started to engage. But, wait... oh. Teleportation, the monsters teleported!"

Andre glanced around, and saw the others doing the same thing. They'd all heard - good. They closed themselves together, readying their powers. If the monsters could teleport, they might do it again. And after revealing that option, they wouldn't wait long before-

KRRK-VWOOSH!

A flash of green light, and the nine of them were flung apart as over a dozen monsters materialized where they'd been standing. Andre landed on his back, and pulled himself back up to his feet. Gunfire erupted from the militia behind the group. Nemenon meant they were safe from the bullets, but getting shot at was still unnerving.

He drew his whip and sized up the new foes. Most of them matched the usual range of lab-experiment looks, but some went beyond the normal mutations and animal traits. A catlike monster swiped at Chroma with claws hot enough to glow, one with froglike skin oozed a slime that ate into the sidewalk below. A feathered monster glanced around with glowing purple eyes, and Andre wasn't even sure what it was doing.

They had powers, Andre was sure of it. Monsters seemed to show them more visibly than capes. But yesterday, monsters with proper powers had been rare. It looked like many more had appeared in the short time since then.

Andre leaped back into the fray, and other capes around him did the same. Fenrir's soldier body crumbled as she returned to werewolf form, Seraph jabbed her baton into the cat-beast attacking Chroma, Mirage began to weave duplicates of each of them. The frog monster vomited a mouthful of slime towards Neodym, and Flashstep teleported him out of the way as Radha returned fire. Anima was hanging back and looked unsteady, but she reached a hand out to touch Fenrir's back. Fenrir's wolf form rippled, growing at least half a foot taller.

No one else was going after the purple-eyed bird, so Andre made it his own target. He dodged past the other monsters, raised his whip, and-

The bird opened its mouth and let out a silent scream. Andre felt it screech through his mind, burning with the sound that should have been there. His head spun and he fell backwards, tasting blood.

Mirage's illusionary duplicates disappeared as she dropped to the ground, joined by Flashstep and Neodym. Maybe it targeted those of us that made eye contact with it? Before Andre could get up, a massive fist slammed into his ribs, knocking him back down. The monster raised its fist to strike again - and Fenrir's claws ripped into its chest, tearing it open.

Andre rolled out of the way as Fenrir withdrew her claws, and the monster collapsed into the spot where he'd been. "The purple-eyed bird," he gasped. "We have to get rid of it. Don't look at its eyes."

Fenrir growled and nodded, looking towards where other monsters were closing ranks around the bird. The monsters didn't seem especially clever, but they could do more than just throwing themselves at foes.

Andre swung his whip into one of the defending monsters, increasing its weight, as a silver laser struck the one next to it. The pair stumbled, and Fenrir shoved her way past them. The bird began to scream again, but got less than halfway before Fenrir drove her claws into its face.

The capes who'd been injured were getting back up, and about half the monsters were down and staying there. Maybe we'll finally catch a break?

Another flash of green light. A second squad of monsters appeared, behind them this time - and half of them began to tear into the militia.

---

Madison

Madison felt herself gasping for breath to stave off the panic. Staying in the back was supposed to be safer but they're everywhere, they're going to keep showing up, I can't even fight, what am I supposed to DO?

She tried to scramble away from the monster bearing down on her. With a WHACK, something collided with her head, and she went down.

She couldn't stay down, she needed to get away. As she pushed herself back up, a familiar red beam streaked past her, and the monster roared in pain. Chroma, that was Chroma's power, he was rescuing her.

Madison ran to Chroma. She felt dizzy, did she have a concussion? That... that wasn't good, but Seraph could fix it, probably, if she got the chance.

She grabbed Chroma's shoulder and shut her eyes. Ignore everything else, let the power do its job. She didn't want to try the overload thing right now, so she just went for a normal power enhancement, like she'd done for Isaac.

Madison opened her eyes just in time to see Chroma's beam blaze out, larger and brighter this time, and strike the monster in the face. As it reeled, Flashstep appeared, and sunk his glowing dagger-thing into its ribs. The monster roared again, and collapsed.

The monster wasn't the only thing screaming in agony. Awful crunching sounds came from the militia further back, joined by more shouts and gunfire. She couldn't... if she dwelled on that, she'd break completely. She'd barely gotten through the previous day.

She needed to focus on her own work, and that meant finding Seraph. Madison glanced back towards the front of the group - Seraph was flying around the cat-thing with burning claws, she jabbed her baton into its back and black blood spilled out from newly opening wounds. As it swiped for her, Neodym propelled a broken signpole forward, skewering the monster through the stomach.

"Seraph?" Madison called into her comms as she headed for her, trying to stay out from underfoot. "Can you heal me?"

"Sure," Seraph said, swooping down to her. She put a hand on Madison's shoulder, and her head cleared.

Madison gave a nod. "Thanks. I think that handled it."

Another voice spoke into Madison's comms, one she recognized as Tameka's. "Team E is retreating. Team G is no longer in contact."

No longer in contact? Were they wiped out completely?

The green light flashed again, and a third wave of monsters appeared. There were still a bunch left from the first two waves, and this time, the militia was already getting swarmed. One of the new monsters was larger than any others so far, bigger than even Isaac's wolf form - and it tackled Isaac, slamming them to the ground.

It wasn't going well for the others, either. One monster fired spines into the three Mirages surrounding it. Two disappeared, and the real Mirage collapsed, bleeding from her stomach. Something struck Cygnus hard enough to send him flying, until he crashed into the wall of a nearby building.

"Say, Anima," Seraph began, as she faced off with a monster near the two of them. "Can you give me mass healing?"

"I can try," Madison replied.

Artemis's silver laser burned a deep hole in the monster's chest. It collapsed, giving them a moment of respite. Seraph offered her left hand, and Madison took it, reaching back out and into her power.

Seraph's power was normally limited to direct contact, but... Madison tried to shape it, to flow out into the air. It would need more fuel to work, but there was fuel all around them, and Madison took it in, acting as a conduit as she gripped Seraph's hand with both of hers.

"Try it," Madison said.

Seraph raised her right hand, and blue light flooded out, flooded everywhere, into everyone present. And... it kept going, Seraph's power was pulling in energy so hungrily Madison couldn't stop the flow, couldn't move her hands away, and she felt Seraph trying to turn the power off but she couldn't, either.

Would it keep going until they passed out? No, worse - Madison was losing her ability to control the energy she was taking in, to make sure it was clean rather than corrupting, and if Seraph got corrupted, pumped that corruption into the rest of them...

If she couldn't break away, she could squeeze tighter. She tightened her grip on Seraph's healing power, then crushed it, shattering it into pieces.

Seraph screamed in pain. But the flow had finally stopped. And the other capes had recovered from their wounds - but so had the surviving monsters, and some were rising back up off the ground.

Flashstep appeared nearby, his left arm around Cygnus and his right around Neodym. "We gotta break through!" he called out, releasing the two of them. "Everyone, over here!"

He disappeared again as Isaac and Artemis carved their way over. Before long, he was back, with Chroma and Mirage in tow. That made all nine of them - at least, the capes.

Seraph had recovered enough to shout into her comms. "Squad A, retreat! We're teleporting ahead!"

Madison took Flashstep's hand. She hadn't wanted to put him through this much strain again so soon, wanted it even less after the process had destroyed a third of Seraph's power, but she couldn't refuse at a time like this. At least he only needed to move nine people, this time. As Isaac, Chroma, and Artemis struck back out at the approaching monsters, Madison focused on Flashstep's power, on pushing more strength into it.

Everyone took hold of each other, and the group vanished into light.

---

Isaac

The first jump took us halfway to the parking lot where Roadripper had become a monster. The second jump took us the rest of the way.

Instinctively, I held my breath. It wouldn't do anything, but being back in the contaminated area was still nerve-wracking. I was in werewolf form now, but Madison had claimed that shouldn't make a difference - at least, if the protection worked at all. She'd described it as like filling a glass with a dense liquid, to keep anything less-dense out, and she'd already filled the Fenrir glass. If I copied an unprotected cape, on the other hand... My brief stint as Sniper had left me vulnerable to Muriel, and we did not want to repeat that, not with the corruption zones.

Dozens of monsters filled the lot, in a variety of shapes and sizes. As we appeared, metal plates began to arrange themselves into a box around a group of the monsters, melting and flowing into place. Green light flashed, and the metal plates crashed to the ground, the monsters inside the box gone. And one of the monsters still standing there looked familiar.

"Roadripper made a teleporter," Cygnus reported, in the tone he used for relaying info to Tameka. "But it looks like he has to keep rebuilding it."

"They might have another one, with Cybermind," Flashstep added.

It seemed weird, still calling them by those names, but at least it gave us a way to refer to them.

"Either way, we're taking out this one!" Seraph called out.

The monsters had noticed us, and were starting to move. We moved to stand against the side of a building, and Artemis and I stood in front to shield the others. We had a lot of foes to deal with, but if we could keep them on one side of ourselves, we'd have a better chance.

"Be careful," Seraph said. "I... can't heal anymore."

Was that what had happened? Shit. Well, nothing to do about it now.

Illusions appeared beside us. The teleporter began to reassemble itself, and beams from Chroma and Artemis streamed out towards it, melting holes in the metal. The pieces fell apart, and more metal flowed into them.

We might not be able to stop the teleporter completely, this way, but at least we could buy time. Keep him from using it for now, on us or any other teams.

The swarm of monsters reached us, striking at me, at the illusions, at anything they could reach. I slashed back, tearing into them. Mirage replaced the illusions as they vanished, Chroma and Artemis started moving their attention to the nearby monsters, and Cygnus and Seraph joined in the melee. I couldn't see what Madison was doing, but I assumed she was boosting people - and hopefully staying safe in the process.

Roadripper seemed to give up on the teleporter. He grabbed another device, one that looked like some sort of alien oversized gun, shaped for his larger monstrous form. I felt myself tense - I did not like Roadripper's guns.

Flashstep appeared next to him, Neodym in tow. Neodym put a palm forward, and the gun sparked and warped, spitting out smoke instead of whatever it had been meant to fire.

Most of the crowd had left Roadripper to go after the rest of us, but some stragglers were left. Before they could bear down on Flashstep and Neodym, the pair disappeared again.

Just need to keep holding out, I told myself as I cut down another monster. I wasn't sure how many more times Flashstep could bail us out. At least we seemed to be staying safe from corruption, however long this had been taking.

We were whittling away at their numbers, but more were arriving. And... wait, those didn't look like monsters.

Another group of capes was coming down a nearby street. I recognized them from earlier in the day, although I was pretty sure their group had been larger before. Looked like six of them, in a variety of colors of armor.

Two of them opened fire with ray guns, while a third conjured a golden shield-like disc of light. The closest one, in brown armor, charged forward with a warhammer. Some sort of black liquid began to spread across the ground, towards monsters near the group, and a bolt of lightning leaped in the same direction.

More monsters moved to meet them, lowering the pressure on our side. I kicked away the creature in front of me, and nothing took its place.

As the crowd around Roadripper thinned, beams of light arced towards him, from Artemis and Chroma. Chroma's beam looked stronger than usual, a more fiery red - courtesy of Madison, I was sure. After a few hits, Roadripper collapsed, covered in burns.

I stomped forward, towards the monstrous form that had been Roadripper. I'd taken a number of hits in the fight, and was getting quite hungry.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the warhammer cape called out. "You're going to eat THAT?"

"We decided it's a worthwhile risk," Seraph replied. "There's no safe strategy here, and we stand to benefit both from access to Roadripper's power and a closer look at the monsters. If there are any problems, I assure you, we will take down Fenrir immediately."

Always a comforting thing to hear. We'd speculated that taking a body that had already become fully corrupted could be safer than experiencing the corruption process directly, but there was no way to be sure without trying it.

I grabbed Roadripper's scaly body, and bit down. It really didn't taste great - way too bitter, really - but my body seemed to recognize it as food enough. Hopefully that meant it would go okay. I finished my meal, and transformed.

I barely shrunk, this time. Still a monster form, but... different. I could feel Roadripper's power, or the distorted form it had taken, but I wasn't feeling monster instincts, and I wasn't feeling Roadripper instincts either. I searched for impressions of his memories and knowledge, of his slew of obnoxious bigotry - nothing. The body and power had been made from him, but the details had been wiped away.

But I could feel something else. The influence of the immortals, the strings meant to puppet his corpse. They tugged at me, commanding me to kill the invaders.

It was a tug that would have moved an empty corpse, but now, I was here. I resisted the pull, twisted myself away, and felt the strings snap.

I took a breath, opening my eyes to see the capes around me. My body felt more stable than it did as the wolf, but it still wouldn't let me talk. That was fine. I moved Roadripper's weird, clawed hand, and gave a thumbs up.

"Looks like it worked," Cygnus said. "Now, what next?"