Pelagia

Pelagia closed her eyes and breathed in. She had gained a new appreciation for the air on the surface, after spending millennia trapped underground.

It could do without the smell of death, though. Something to look forward to.

She had manifested in the same cosmic form she had shown to many of her surface contacts. A body of space, stars and galaxies swirling within. It took some energy to maintain, but only a tiny fraction of the huge reserves she'd obtained. A treat to herself after everything she'd endured, the chance not only to take over the world but to do it in style.

She floated forward, along the street in what was left of the city of Hamilton. Around her, ahead of her, her army advanced - a swarm of obedient corpses pumped full of tainted magic. Unfortunately, the results had not turned out particularly pleasant. One of these days, they'd get the chance to refine the process and tidy things up better.

Banners hung from a building to the left. Pelagia wasn't certain what all of them meant, but they seemed to be a set of inflammatory political messages. This was one of those "red" areas, the ones with vendettas against migrants and all sorts of other groups.

Meaningless drivel. The Archmages had never cared about the backgrounds of their members, they had traveled far to recruit the best minds around. All they had sought was true skill with magic and the willingness to make use of it.

Advancing further, Pelagia felt a presence ahead. A pair of energy signatures, belonging to the "capes" who called themselves Sculptor and Radiance. With Phantasm out of commission again, they were the last meaningful defenders of Hamilton.

No, there was a third signature. The faint sense of unawakened powers, somewhere... above?

Pelagia looked up, to the surrounding rooftops. Nothing visible, but there were places to hide. She floated further upward for a better view. As she rose, gunfire rang out around her.

Bullets crashed against her, shattering against her skin. She looked around, spotting the snipers that had been waiting in ambush, and hurled lightning out towards each of them, starting with the one on the verge of gaining power.

The first one exploded without the chance to even realize why. The second one was starting to back away, the third began to run but was too slow. By the fourth, they'd started escaping easy reach.

Pelagia sent out a command to her army, to advance and deal with any stragglers, as she flew further ahead. No need to devote any more of her own attention to the underlings.

She felt Sculptor and Radiance moving away, realizing like the rest of their army that they'd gotten in over their heads. But Pelagia was faster. She followed, catching sight of the green... vehicle the two of them were in. Was it a car, or big enough that there was some other word for it? There were so many new concepts around, but this was hardly the time to try to make sense out of them.

Pelagia hurled a bolt of lightning down at the vehicle. Sparks and smoke poured out, and it skidded to a halt. She dove downward, calling the touch of ruin into her right hand, and slammed her palm down on the vehicle's roof. In moments, the top of the vehicle rusted and crumbled away.

The occupants scrambled out. One of them - Radiance - hurled a glowing orb upward, and it exploded in Pelagia's face. A blink was all it took to clear the burning light out of her eyes. Before Radiance could throw another, Pelagia descended upon her, wrapping her hand around Radiance's throat. The ruin spread through her, and Radiance collapsed into a pile of ashes.

Claws dug into Pelagia's back, and burst of energy burned her left thigh. A voice came from behind her. "Die, you demon!"

Sculptor, and one of her toys. No matter. Pelagia swatted the gargoyle on her back, and it fell away as a chalky powder.

She flew towards Sculptor, dismissing her ruinous touch, and her left hand grabbed for the contraption Sculptor had shot her with. Some sort of gun, enhanced with power - probably Roadripper's. With a squeeze, the device crumpled.

Her right hand seized Sculptor by the neck, lifting her into the air. Sculptor struggled, trying to gasp out more words, but with no weapons and nothing to use her power on, she was helpless. Pelagia flew back to the rest of her army, tossing Sculptor down for them to make one of their own.

A voice, Amenirdis's voice, spoke into Pelagia's head. We're losing ground to the south. Seraph's people are causing more trouble than we expected. I may need to deal with them in person.

Hm, Pelagia replied. They weren't supposed to be able to assemble significant forces fast enough to matter. But I can join you down there, I've taken care of things in the northwest.

I'll head over as well, Javed said. Unless... can we just pull the rug out from under them?

I still don't have a method that would be safe for us, Pelagia said. But if I can find one, we'll really be in the clear.

Pelagia began to fly south, calling parts of her army to follow. Be careful around Fenrir and Anima, she urged. They're the ones who can cause actual problems for us.

We'll be fine, Amenirdis insisted. I'll make sure of it.

There wasn't much that could threaten an immortal. But with magic returning to the world faster than ever, more and more people might develop abilities that could do it. They'd need to take out the ones that had turned up, and secure their position enough to stave off any others.

This time, they would win.

---

Tameka

Capes' voices surrounded Tameka as her eyes scanned her spreadsheet, updating it with the latest deaths. Team B had lost a few capes before joining up with Team A, the one with the people she actually knew.

The survivors from Team B were mostly from Louisville: Brigid, Earthshaker, Sensor, and Lightshow. Brigid, their leader, was the tech cape who'd built their equipment. Earthshaker had enhanced strength he used to wield a warhammer, Sensor could detect various forms of energy, and Lightshow could generate forcefields. The other two were a duo from Ramsay: Voltqueen, who could manipulate electricity, and Duskmire, who could form a tar-like substance out of shadows.

As for the others.... Teams F and H were going after Cybermind's teleporter, and they'd confirmed the deaths of the remaining members of Team G. What was left of Teams D and E were regrouping together, while Team C was pressing on ahead.

Most of the militia squads accompanying the capes had fallen back, if they'd been able. They probably wouldn't be any more help. But if there did turn out to be any chances to make use of mundane weapons, Tameka had communication lines to several other commanders, ready to let them know.

She’d coordinate it all as well as she could. Hopefully everyone else would do their part.

---

Radha

Radha watched Fenrir's ghoulish form shamble forward, the body of the thing that had been Roadripper. The same kind of thing Monica had become.

But this was no time for thinking like that. Not when more foes could show up at any moment.

"So," Seraph was asking, "what exactly can you... do, now?"

Fenrir made some sort of sweeping hand motion. Radha wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean - it would be hard to communicate much without spending time they didn't have.

"I can try to take a look," Anima said. She placed a hand on Fenrir's left shoulder, keeping pace for a few seconds before breaking contact. "Ugh, I can't tell much beyond what we already saw. Manipulating metal, imbuing power into it. Whatever that means."

"And you're sure this is still Fenrir?" Seraph continued. "And it won't stop being Fenrir?"

"As sure as I am of anything," Anima insisted. "I know Isaac, and the... the core, it's still them, and it's stable. The tricks those people use, they don't always work right on powers that mess with powers. Meta-powers?"

Meta-powers. Powers only Fenrir and Anima had been lucky enough to get, out of the group here. Radha could feel resentment bubbling up, joined by frustration at the reminder of the way she alone had been told not to talk about Fenrir, and...

Radha breathed in, then exhaled. No, she was trying to be better than that. This hadn't been easy for Fenrir or Anima either, and they'd been more understanding than she could have asked for. And this was, again, not the fucking time.

"Hmm," Seraph grunted. "I'll take your word for it."

The group continued forward, quieting back down as they focused on their surroundings. Seraph's power had also changed during the fight, but she didn't seem to want to dwell on that, and Radha couldn't blame her.

The Louisville capes were sticking together. They all wore power armor, with a shared style. Earthshaker's brown armor looked particularly thick, while the other three had lighter suits that looked designed for capes without super strength, and held energy weapons. Brigid's armor was turquoise, Lightshow's was gold, and Sensor's was swirls of grey and purple.

The pair of Ramsay capes, Voltqueen and Duskmire, were at the front of the group. They had their own armor, with more of a historic look, rather than futuristic like Radha and the Louisville capes. Duskmire's armor was dark green, while Voltqueen's was bright pink. Rather tacky, but Radha had to respect anyone with the sense to wear proper armor to a fight. Not like the capes who'd been set on showing off, like... Camilla.

Radha felt her face tighten at the thought. In Camilla’s world, the things she’d said had sounded so sensible, but once she’d allowed herself to start doubting, more questions kept popping up, even… no, not that line of thought again. This wasn’t even any of Cygnus or Fenrir’s business, it wasn’t about ideology or anything, it had just been between the three of them. She’d known how she’d felt about Camilla and Monica, she’d known what she’d wanted.

Right?

Radha’s eye scanned the surroundings, looking for something to bring her back to the present. A light gleamed against the clouds, arcing across the sky - was it an aircraft? A cape? But… why wasn’t it getting shot down?

"Um," Radha began. "Is that…"

"That is NOT normal!" a rough voice shouted from the Louisville group. Sensor, probably - had they noticed something?

The light dropped, disappearing behind the buildings at a distance that must have been a few blocks away. A noise rumbled out from the same direction - an explosion?

"Lelti!" Tameka’s voice cut in, frantic. "She’s engaging Team C, just east of you!"

Radha’s blood went cold. Are we really about to do this? She glanced around, looking to see what the others would do.

"This way!" Seraph called out, pointing towards the confrontation. Next to her, Cygnus relayed the message to Fenrir. Fenrir changed direction without hesitation, lumbering ahead as the other two flanked her.

Radha followed, falling back in line with the others. Is this how we all die, then?

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.

---

Isaac

I headed down the street, towards the direction of Lelti. Finally, a chance to eviscerate one of those fuckers.

But even with our numbers, Pandora’s team was terrifying. Was there anything we could do to prepare? I thought back to what I’d seen Roadripper doing, when he’d first taken the form I’d stolen from him. I couldn’t translate the monster body’s impulses well enough to guess how the power worked, but maybe if I just… tried it?

Shuffling noises came from ahead, and more distorted figures came into view. If we’d have to stop to fight the next wave of monsters, I could put that time to use.

The Ramsay capes were the first to take action. The pink one thrust a hand forward and lightning arced out, exploding into the approaching crowd. Her green companion clenched his fists, sending a ripple along the ground ahead.

My eyes landed on a black car, abandoned during the evacuation. Decent size, looked like a fairly new model, probably had whatever computer stuff they’d been putting in cars lately. It’d do.

I stopped next to the car and slammed both of my hands down on the roof. Felt weird, looking down at big monster hands that weren’t my usual werewolf ones. No huge claws extending out of them, and like the rest of the things we’d been fighting, they were asymmetrical and irregular. But more importantly, they could do something to machines.

I focused, reaching out with my power, into the metal below. Possibilities streamed into my mind, too jumbled and alien to fully parse, and I had limited time to work. What would a fight with Lelti be like? The immortals didn’t seem to have specific individual powers the way the rest of us did, more like they just took the raw energy behind those powers and shaped it however they wanted. That was kind of abstract, but could I disrupt it?

Disrupting powers… Rudianos had used some device for that, hadn’t he? Back when we first fought Labrys. But Cybermind blew it up, and I didn’t even know the mechanics behind it. And if Lelti could resist the effect, it might hurt us more than her. Better to have a way to target it.

I pulled the car’s material inward, compressing it into itself, kneading it with my power as I tried to feel out what I could do to it. Maybe if I had more to work with?

I glanced over my shoulder. Madison usually hung back during fights, right? Impacts sounded from ahead, joined by shouting. And a ways behind… there she was.

My eyes met Madison’s, as best as I could tell through her armor. I rumbled out an incoherent noise, and extended out my left hand towards her.

Madison stepped forward. "Um, I’m not quite sure what you want, but… I can try?"

She gripped my hand with both of hers, and warmth flowed into me. I passed it across my body, down my right arm, into the lump that had been a car.

I wanted something that would cover a wide area, so Lelti couldn’t just dodge out of the way, while still selectively affecting her. With the amount of power she was carrying around, maybe I could set it to react to that? That… felt doable, actually. And with Madison’s help, I was getting an idea of how to do this. Hijack the signals sent from the navigation system, build a new signal that would resonate with high concentrations and distort them.

She'd still be Lelti, but if this worked, maybe she'd be a bit more manageable of a Lelti.

"NOW!" a voice shouted - one of the pair from earlier. I looked over, watching as I worked.

A monster swung a pair of bladed appendages down as Flashstep and Mirage stood before it. Flashstep teleported away, but Mirage didn’t move - then vanished as the blade made contact. Flashstep reappeared further from the front line, next to… oh, there was the real Mirage.

The green cape made an scooping motion upward with his hands. Some sort of goop bubbled up around the monster’s feet, seeming to congeal around it. As it struggled against the goop, the pink knight sent a torrent of electricity into its chest. After several seconds, the monster dropped, covered in scorch marks.

"Hah-HA!" the pink cape cheered, high-fiving her companion. Looked like that had been the last of the fancy monsters.

"Fenrir!" Seraph called from over my right shoulder. "You finishing up there?"

I nodded - a mix of guesswork and hope, really. I turned the rest of my focus back to my project, shedding whatever material didn’t feel relevant as I reshaped what had been the front of the car into some sort of transmitter. I was running mostly on power-intuition, but that intuition seemed to know what it was doing.

It ended up as a box, a few feet in each direction, with several handholds. I included some buttons from the car’s dashboard - one to turn it on when Lelti was in range, and others as spares just in case. Although with how drained I felt, I wouldn’t be adding more features soon enough to matter anyway. To let the others know what I’d been up to, I etched words onto the side of the box: ANTI LELTI FIELD.

I released Madison’s hand and gripped the device - I could feel power humming within it, but it was also fucking heavy. As I struggled to drag it out of the pile of scrap, Cygnus touched it, lightening its weight. We began to lift it, and…

Everyone paused. I couldn’t see their faces to get any clues, but they were probably getting another message from Tameka. And I could guess what that message might be.

"GET DOWN!" Seraph barked out.

Flashstep grabbed Cygnus’s arm and the side of the box he was holding. The two of them disappeared, along with the box. Moments later, a wave of heat and noise threw me off my feet.

I looked up, in the direction we’d been heading. A figure hung in the sky, wrapped in gleaming gold and silver. Lelti's psychic voice growled down at us.

There you are. Let's put an end to this.

---

Julian

Julian reappeared in time to hear the explosion outside. The house he and Cygnus had warped to was out of direct view of the fight, but close enough for reflected light to bounce in. At least they were safe, as was the thing Fenrir had whipped together. Hopefully the others were holding out as well.

He glanced at the device’s control panel, then to Cygnus. "Should we…"

Without a word, Cygnus pressed the power button. The device hummed, and something rippled out. The air felt heavier, somehow, but it didn’t feel like it was affecting him in any meaningful way. Hopefully Lelti would be another story.

He took Cygnus’s hand, and the two of them warped back out. Capes were getting back to their feet, outfits and surroundings singed by the flames. Chroma, kneeling next to Neodym, hurled a beam of blue light towards the floating Lelti. From another direction, Artemis followed with a silver laser.

Lelti swept out a hand, and the two beams dissipated before reaching her. She reached forward, as if to retaliate - then hesitated. Her body dulled, as if a light shining on it from within had gone out. Had the box weakened her that much?

No, more likely she was just being more careful with the energy she was spending. What they'd accomplished so far was making her take them seriously.

As Julian finished the thought, capes around him continued firing up at Lelti. One of them was Cygnus - a bullet from his rifle struck Lelti's metal stomach, and fell away as a flattened disc. If Cygnus’s gravity power had taken effect, it wasn’t enough to notice.

Lelti's outstretched palm swept over the capes below, leaving orbs of gold light in its wake. One by one, the orbs streaked downwards, then exploded. Lightshow threw forcefields into the path of the ones pointed at her group, dampening the explosions but not fully containing them. As an orb flew towards him, Julian grabbed Cygnus, then teleported again.

They reappeared in a spot Lelti had already hit. Anima was there, grabbing a fence in a pained-looking motion to get back to her feet.

"Anima!" Cygnus called out. "I need a boost!"

Julian kept his eyes on Lelti while they headed for Anima, Cygnus explaining an idea he'd had. Whatever the details were, it would only matter if they survived long enough to pull it off.

Lelti's gaze turned to the Louisville capes. Probably Lightshow, in particular. She dove downward, rocketing towards the group.

Earthshaker jumped in front of Lightshow as Lelti crashed through one of her forcefields. He swung his warhammer, Lelti raised a hand to block it, and the hammer snapped in half from the impact. Lightshow, Sensor, and Brigid scattered, fleeing in different directions, as Lelti drove a foot into Earthshaker's face. His head and helmet burst into a grisly shower, and his body fell to the sidewalk below.

To Julian's side, Anima took Cygnus's hand, visibly shaking. "I... I can try, but..."

Seraph flew towards Lelti, jabbing her baton into her back. Was there some sort of string trailing from the baton? Julian wasn't sure if Seraph's power had managed to hurt Lelti, but whatever the answer, she took notice. Lelti turned, swatting at Seraph, as Seraph flew back and out of reach.

Lelti's eyes scanned the area. Capes were starting to fire at her again, but they were more spread out, now, and taking whatever cover they could. Her gaze settled on Julian's group - as she started moving, he grabbed the other two and teleported.

They reappeared a ways away, and Anima was the first to speak. "I... think that'll do it? Maybe?"

"Good enough," Cygnus said. He released Anima's hand, aimed his rifle, and fired.

This time, Lelti visibly shuddered. Her eyes returned to the trio, and Julian could swear he heard her hissing in frustration.

Maybe they'd started getting somewhere.

---

Andre

From what Andre had gathered, the immortals had fully reconstructed themselves with their powers. Attacking their bodies didn't seem effective, if they could just fix any damage to them. It sounded like their power reserves were too high to run down that way.

So he'd asked Anima to enhance his gravity power in a way that would let it target the powers of a person hit with it, to affect them on a deeper level that would be harder to repair. It was a bit abstract, but it seemed to have worked.

At the very least, he'd pissed her off. Before he could see Lelti's next move, Andre felt the pull of another teleport from Flashstep. The three of them reappeared on the other side of Lelti, as explosions ripped through the spot where they'd been.

I. Hate. Teleporters.

Huh. Was it a power she couldn't use herself? Maybe the immortals' powers constituted something too big to teleport, at least not safely to them.

Another pair of Lelti's orbs flew in a different direction - they didn't seem to be heading for any of the capes. One of them struck the wall of a house, blowing a hole in it... the same house where he and Flashstep had left Fenrir's device. The second one flew through the hole before exploding, and the device's odd pressure faded.

At least it bought us the time to get our bearings.

Andre focused his boosted power on his rifle, and fired another two shots. Both missed. Lelti was a smaller target than Fenrir had been - not easy to hit from a distance.

He tensed in anticipation of Lelti's next strike, but it didn't come. Instead, she flew straight upward, towards the storm clouds above. The clouds reached down for her, obscuring her position.

From Lelti's position, a huge beam of light shone down towards a house, incinerating half of it. There wasn't any sign of whoever she'd been aiming at - hopefully they'd gotten away.

Tameka's voice spoke into Andre's headset. "Artemis wants to join you. She says she can aim better."

As Tameka finished speaking, Radha's silver armor came into view. It looked like she'd circled around from behind, to stay safe from Lelti.

"You sure?" Andre called out to her.

"With Anima's help, I'm our best shot," Artemis insisted. "I can-"

"Grab someone!" Flashstep shouted. "NOW!"

Radha grabbed Artemis's wrist, and Flashstep's power pulled the group away. As they rematerialized, light filled the spot where they'd been.

"We'll need to keep moving," Flashstep continued. "Stay in contact."

"I need to touch everyone I'm feeding power to," Anima said. "How do we..."

"You hold onto me and Artemis," Andre instructed. "Flashstep, grab Anima."

Andre pushed his rifle into Radha's hands, keeping hold of the barrel so he could keep using his power on it, as each of them took their positions. Before Radha could take aim, Flashstep whisked them away again.

As they reappeared, Andre caught sight of a figure flying up towards Lelti. Was that Seraph? Why?

The storm clouds crackled, and lightning flashed with a violent BOOM - then leaped down the wire hanging from Seraph's baton, down to Voltqueen below. Voltqueen seemed to be holding the wire with one hand, as she used the other to hurl the lightning back up at Lelti.

As Lelti reeled from the hit, Radha aimed the rifle at her, and Andre pumped his gravity power into the bullets as Radha opened fire. He couldn't tell how accurate her aim was, but he hoped she'd hit at least once.

Beams of light swept out from Lelti, cutting across Seraph's wire and heading towards the capes below. Another teleport brought the group to safety - how many times could Flashstep keep doing this?

Above, Seraph was flying downward, away from Lelti. Before she could get low enough, another burst of lightning erupted from the sky, and Seraph dropped out of the air.

She fell out of sight, behind a mostly-intact house. If she was still alive, at least that would offer cover.

Radha and Andre fired up at Lelti again. Andre thought he could feel his power's grip on her increasing, but it was hard to tell, and even harder to tell how much it would take to matter.

Something radiated out from Lelti, in a way that felt reminiscent of Fenrir's device. Andre wasn't sure what it was, but it couldn't be good.

Where was Fenrir, anyway? She didn't have comms, and Andre hadn't seen her in a while.

Flashstep's power pulled at them again, and-

Andre felt his a stabbing wrench in his guts as he teleported. When the group reappeared, he felt dizzy, and tasted blood. The others didn't look any better.

"The hell was that?" Radha snapped.

"In... interference," Anima got out. "In the teleport... dimension... stuff."

"She'll kill us if we stay still," Flashstep muttered. "But she'll still kill us if we keep warping..."

"Then we deal with it and work fast," Andre declared.

Before Radha could finish aiming again, light began to fill Andre's vision, and Flashstep whisked them all away. The wrenching feeling was getting worse, but at least this time he could brace for it. As soon as they reappeared, Radha took aim, Andre focused his power, and the two of them opened fire.

Another jump, when Lelti's attention fell on them again. She was still blasting in other directions as well, but Andre was finding it hard to keep track of the rest of the battlefield as his brain grew increasingly frazzled. Andre coughed as the metallic taste filled his mouth, feeling blood dribble down between his chin and the suit over it.

As Andre and Radha began the next volley, a familiar figure ran towards the group. Neodym, holding a bundle of metal antenna-looking objects.

"Cygnus, Anima," Neodym began. Could you..."

"Grab on!" Anima called out.

Neodym gripped Anima's arm. Keeping one hand on the rifle, Andre reached for the bundle with the other, charging it with his power as well. Once again, Flashstep warped the group away.

"Damn," Neodym gasped as they reappeared. He released Anima's grip, pulling away. "Good luck on your end."

"Wait," Flashstep protested. "Don't just..."

Neodym was already running back to cover. Andre didn't try to keep an eye on him - he needed to focus on helping Radha fire.

Another couple of shots, another teleport. Pain was blurring Andre's vision, but through it, he noticed that this position gave a better view of Neodym. He was crouched behind the wreckage of a building, flinging his pieces of metal upward as his power rocketed them towards Lelti.

A couple of Neodym's shots hit, Andre was pretty sure. More chances to pile his gravity power onto Lelti. But it didn't take long to get her attention.

Another beam of light streaked downward. The wreckage disintegrated, and Neodym crumbled with it.

Flashstep and Anima both let out pained noises. Andre tried to keep his mind on the task - there would be time for mourning later.

He and Radha finished their set of shots, and Flashstep teleported them once more. Andre looked up, and...

Lelti was moving, flying out of her cloudy vantage point. She stayed high in the air, calling more clouds to follow her, and Andre was pretty sure she was heading north.

"Is she fleeing?" Radha asked.

"If she is," Flashstep growled, "we'll follow."

Radha took aim - she seemed to be having a harder time with it, with Lelti moving more than before. They took several shots, with worse aim than before, but also Lelti seemed to be giving less focus to attacking. After a few seconds longer than usual, light shone back once again, and they teleported.

Each teleport was more agonizing than the last, but moving along Lelti's path meant making up some of the distance she'd covered. They fired again, and Andre couldn't shake the feeling that Lelti was slowing down.

"Tameka?" Andre called into his comms. "I think it's working. Can you get Fenrir up here?"

"I'm sending them your way," Tameka replied. "Duskmire, too."

Duskmire? What did he... oh, that was a good idea.

Another teleport. Andre gasped in pain as his head spun, joined by a chorus of agonized noises from the others. They couldn't keep doing this.

Above them, Lelti had stopped moving. She hung in the air, her silhouette growing brighter. A furious growl echoed down into Andre's mind.

"That can't be good," Flashstep murmured.

"Shhh," Radha hissed as she fired again. "We're close, just let me..."

Lelti dropped like a rock, disappearing from view. An explosion rung out from blocks ahead, where she must have landed, and light filled Andre's vision.

As a shockwave ripped through the streets ahead, Flashstep's power pulled at the group. Andre shut his eyes, willing his power to stay in place as he passed out.

---

Isaac

I stood my ground, shielding Duskmire behind me. He had armor, but I had an extra life.

Lelti's shockwave crashed into my monster-Roadripper form. It crumbled, and my wolf body burst out.

Glancing back, I saw Duskmire still catching his breath. "That was... damn," he muttered. "She can do that?"

Another three capes ran to catch up with us. Mirage, and two of the Louisville capes. The purple and gold ones.

"She's burned through a lot of power," the purple cape said. "And a bunch of that was the impact from her hitting the ground. But she's still got more than any of us. You got a plan?"

"We do," Duskmire confirmed. "You can make shields, right?"

The gold cape nodded. Duskmire outlined the advice we'd gotten from Tameka, and Mirage conjured three duplicates of me. We advanced, towards the giant crater Lelti had left.

Thankfully, she was still there, held down by Cygnus's power. When we got close enough to see her, she let out a roar, and we scattered as she hurled a blast of light at us.

Duskmire stomped a foot to the ground, and inky goop streamed down towards Lelti. As forcefields covered his retreat, the stuff grabbed hold of Lelti's feet, then climbed higher, up to her eyes.

I wasn't going to assume she couldn't move or see, but at least it would be harder. Which meant it was my turn.

I charged down at her, all three duplicates to my left. Lelti blasted away the middle two, smashing through the forcefields in her path. As the last two of us reached her, she let out another volley of light at each of us. The last duplicate disappeared like the others, and my skin and fur started to burn.

Lelti did smell like a meal, but it was fainter, muffled. Not her metal exterior, but whatever was beneath it. I'd have to pry her open for the treat inside.

I turned my hands back-to-back, palms pointing outward, and drove my claws into her sternum. As I pulled her ribcage open, Lelti grabbed my wrists with each of her hands, and my arms screamed in pain as they began to disintegrate.

No time to hesitate. Among Lelti's silver bones were red, living veins, and a delicious-looking heart. I wrapped my teeth around it and bit down.

Lelti's body fell limp as I swallowed her heart. Her heart burned in my stomach, power flooding into me. Was it too much?

My body shrunk back down, becoming... what was it becoming? It didn't have a definite form, this time. As it shifted, I felt it allowing me to shape it, to pull it into what I wanted.

I thought of the women in my family, and shaped my features accordingly. For good measure, I gave myself a purple dress and a pair of leathery bat-like wings, as the transformation finished. I must have looked like some sort of succubus.

An irritated voice returned to my head. You are truly the most annoying mortal.

Oh, hey, Lelti. You're still alive in there?

Of course I am. We ARE our powers, destroying our bodies is irrelevant. You may have seized my power, but you can't hold it forever. Soon, you'll have to set me free.

In other words, none of this mattered. In order to eat another one of the immortals, I'd need to release the one I was copying. Trying to stop them all would just mean throwing away our final days for nothing.

Bullshit. Lelti hadn't been acting like this was some inconsequential game, she'd fought like she had something to lose. And she'd lost.

I shut my eyes, trying to trace Lelti's thought patterns. Her group could be defeated, right? Yes, they'd lost before. And they'd come back, but... not all of them had. Others had unraveled, dispersing the power that constituted them.

Could I make that happen? I thought back to the web I'd glimpsed while peering into Muriel's mind, when I'd been Sniper. I could feel myself deep in that network of power, tugging on it - but I wasn't deep enough.

But someone else was. And she was the real prize.

You won't defeat her, Lelti hissed. She's always been the strongest of us.

We'll see, won't we?

I turned my mind to my surroundings, reaching outward to feel the others. Duskmire, Mirage, and the Louisville pair, then further back, the rest of our group heading towards us. I had a loose idea of their positions, but focusing gave me a clearer picture. Many were varying degrees of injured: Cygnus was leaning on Artemis, and behind them, Flashstep was leaning on Madison. Seraph was with Chroma and the pink cape, seemingly too exhausted to fly. From their absence, I could tell who we'd lost: the other two from Louisville, and Neodym.

I reached out to each of their minds, broadcasting a psychic message like the immortals had. Hey all, Fenrir here. I've successfully eaten and body-jacked Lelti.

Before continuing, I paused, taking stock of my capabilities. I should be able to patch up the wounded, I continued. But probably not well enough to get people back into combat.

Murmurs of affirmation trickled into my mind. Seemed like people were fine with that.

I broadened my awareness further. Elsewhere in the city, the capes still on the front line were fighting other groups of monsters, helping to keep them occupied. The monster that had been Cybermind was now a corpse.

Above, I felt the power Pandora had worked into the storm clouds, a lattice of strings I could now tug at. I reached back for our base, finding Tameka's mind and establishing a psychic link so I could relay my finds directly. And to the north...

Two beacons of power were closing in, shining brighter than any mortal capes. It took no effort to guess who they were.

We'll have to get ready fast, I told everyone. Muriel and Pandora are on their way.