Chapter 21
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As evening became night, Shudder leaned over the railing on a rooftop across from the warehouse with the small fry Ifrit was able to gather. Thankfully, it was all familiar faces, Gremlin, Bodkin, and Quetzal. The building they were watching was a sprawling beast that took up the entire block and stood three stories tall. It was made of old brick and still had the painted ad for a long-forgotten vacuum manufacturer on one side.

“It’s a big building,” Shudder observed, “but it’s small for a warehouse. What was it originally?”

“I think it was a factory,” Ifrit replied. She wore a black suit of some kind of skin tight material but, to avoid drawing attention, she wasn’t completely in costume yet.

“Only one fire escape?” Bodkin was peering through a pair of binoculars. She wore a red costume which, up close, appeared to have been adapted from a track suit. “The place is a death trap.”

“No external security, at least,” said Shudder. She shifted the backpack slightly into a more comfortable position.

“But there are some security cameras,” Bodkin observed. “And they look new. Someone’s probably watching.”

“Grem can take care of them,” Quetzal said. She was already wearing her armor. “According to rumor, the trucks arrive in the back. No one enters through the front door any more.”

“Then we’ll enter through the front.” Shudder turned to face the others. “Listen, when we get in we need to take care of any security. We don’t know what Valpurgia’s victims will do, but obviously we want to avoid hurting them. Our main goal is to get me in as central a location as possible. Second floor is ideal, but I think the first floor will still be fine. Once you’re sure I’m in position or able to get into position, all of you need to get out and as far from the building as you can. Got it?”

The others stared at her.

“That’s a really concerning thing you just said,” said Quetzal.

Shudder considered her allies. If she told them what she was holding, Gremlin and Bodkin would probably abandon the job immediately. Quetzal might even try to stop her from activating it. On the other hand, if they were going to join her in the warehouse they deserved to know the risks involved.

She gestured to the backpack. “I have a device that will free them from Valpurgia’s mind control.” She swallowed, preparing to destroy the excited looks on their faces. “The catch is that it’s built using an altered version of the Orbis Tertius program.”

“Of fucking course,” Gremlin said. “Fucking Igors. Every time.” 

“Hey, let’s hear her out,” Quetzal replied. “I don’t think any of us have an easy way to break a crowd of people out of vampire mind control, do we?”

She looked at the others, who didn’t respond. Shudder continued awkwardly. “We deleted as much of the behavior-altering stuff as we could, and made it so the rest wouldn’t be part of the actual psionic wave, but this was a rush job, and the new device isn’t fully tested. We ran some simulations with what software we had, but…” How to explain it? “We can’t be certain there won’t be any permanent behavioral alterations. If we say we’re 99.9% sure it’s safe on people currently under mind control, then we’re probably only about 90% sure it’s safe on those not under mind control. Without the primary task to perform, the wave could attempt to perform its original purpose. But on the plus side, making a psionic projector portable absolutely murders its range, so if you get outside you won’t even be touched by the wave at all.”

“But you aren’t under mind control,” Ifrit observed.

Shudder tried to smile, but she was sure it came across as more of a cringe. “I’m not, so I’m going to be taking the risk. It’s only fair. There was only one person who was willing to be a target of the original Orbis, after all.”

Quetzal looked down at Gremlin. “I think she’s being pretty forthcoming. She didn’t have to tell us any of that.”

Gremlin crossed her arms. “I don’t know. I don’t trust her and I certainly don’t trust Tlön.”

“Then what do you think she’s planning?” Ifrit asked. “What possible scheme could require her to put us in this situation?”

Behind them, Bodkin had unslung her bow and now proceeded to hop up, landing lightly on the railing. She took aim and released the string, sending an arrow flying across the street where it struck the security camera, embedding itself deeply. 

“There. Now Gremlin can go home if she wants.”

“Damn it, Bod, they’ll be way more suspicious of a broken camera than a malfunctioning one,” Quetzal snapped.

“Then we’d better move,” Ifrit announced, and her entire body ignited with flames that surrounded her like a second skin. She leaped over the ledge, sending a burst of flame out from one hand that broke her fall just before she hit the ground.

Bodkin followed a second later, acrobatically making her way down the fire escape.

“Never said I was out,” Gremlin grumbled.

The remaining three made their way down and across the street to the front door of the warehouse. It was metal, and appeared to be old, but sturdy. It had a large lock with a keyhole.

“I can get us in, but it’ll be noisy,” Quetzal said

However, Ifrit waved her away. “I’ve got it.”

Ifrit pointed a finger at the space between the door and door frame, and shot out a jet of flame which quickly melted the deadbolt and most of the lock along with it. She pulled open the door easily. “There.”

Lit by Ifrit’s flames, the group peered inside. Most of the first floor had been converted into a single room, which was packed with semi trailers, several of which were already open and loaded with rows of exosuits.

“Well, we were right about this being her armory,” Bodkin said. “But where’s the army?”

“Maybe she wasn’t planning to start her attack tonight,” Shudder said hopefully. “If we got here before she forced them to arrive, we may be in luck. Let’s check the other floors.”

They stepped inside and Ifrit immediately let out a gasp. The flames surrounding her seemed to pull themselves away from her body and condense into a ball that flew across the room and into the outstretched hand of the Crimson Conjurer. He was very recognizable now, wearing his once-famous blood-red costume with his cloak. Behind him was the shadow of a staircase.

“Hmm. Ifrit, is it? It seems you have raw magical power, but lack knowledge. Otherwise you would have seen that I control all the magic in this space.” He began to walk forward, the little ball of flame floating above his hand. “Who else do we have? Quetzal, a nonpowered villain who uses a makeshift exosuit. Gremlin, whose power is useless against magic. And Bodkin and Shudder, who also lack any means to cause me harm. Is this all your little coalition could manage?”

“Find an opening and get to the stairs,” Bodkin whispered, then she called out to the Conjurer. “It’s all we need!”

Moving with expert speed, she nocked and fired an arrow. The Conjurer held up his free hand and the arrow halted in midair just a foot away from him, as did the second and third arrow that followed it.

“Illusion may be my area of expertise, but I’m far from lacking when it comes to more direct forms of magic.” His gloating was annoying.

“Right, let’s test that,” Quetzal said. She began to sprint forward, taking huge, leaping steps with her suit’s huge legs. Shudder began to run as well, following in Quetzal’s wake. The Conjurer did not react as Quetzal slammed her fist downward upon him, leaving a crater in the concrete floor. The conjurer himself, however, was suddenly gone. A moment later he reappeared, floating in the air in the space between Shudder and Quetzal, and flung Ifrit’s fireball at Quetzal’s back. The fireball exploded against Quetzal’s armor with a force that seemed impossible for how small it had been. Quetzal was sent flying several meters, where she landed on her side with a grunt.

“Not bad. But I must have either overestimated Ifrit or underestimated you because it seems your armor is still operational. Ah, well, that’s easy enough to fix.”

He held up a hand, which began to crackle with red-colored lightning. Shudder knew she needed to get to the staircase now while the Conjurer was distracted, but she was sure that lightning would do worse than damage her suit, so she took a leap, swinging her baton hard, aiming between the Conjurer’s shoulders. However, just before she connected, he raised his free hand and she halted in midair, trapped and left completely helpless.

He slowly rotated in midair to face her. “Am I not properly emphasizing how powerless you are against me? Or have supervillains become less cowardly and more foolish?”

Shudder reached out psychically, desperately trying to find some sort of fear to latch on to. It wasn’t as simple as finding a fear of Valpurgia’s control, not if she’d taken time to establish this level of influence over him. His mind must be so scrambled that it would be impossible to guess what could frighten him.

Thankfully, it was Gremlin who came to Shudder’s rescue. She leapt up out of the darkness, grabbing the Conjurer around the waist. “Want to see how useless I am?” she shouted.

Shudder felt herself drop and managed to land halfway-gracefully, only slightly bumping her knee on a crate before she took off running past the ex-hero. As she reached the base of the stairs she saw the Conjurer bring his lightning-crackling hand down on Gremlin, sending it surging into her body for a second or two before she fell, limp, onto the floor below. He was just turning his attention back to Shudder when another arrow forced him to pause his attack on her to halt it mid-air. Shudder took the stairs two at a time.

The second floor, like the first, was almost entirely a single room. However, unlike the first floor, it was full of people. There were dozens, maybe hundreds, barely visible shadows in the dim light coming through the window. But they all stood in place, hardly reacting at all as she pushed past them, throwing herself into the crowd.

She removed the backpack and unzipped it. It would be okay, wouldn’t it? Even if some remnant of the original Orbis made its way into this psionic wave, it probably wouldn’t do anything to any of her friends. Quetzal destroyed police cars, Bodkin used traffic cameras as target practice, Ifrit literally robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Even Gremlin occasionally managed to sabotage an ATM in such a way that caused it to spit out money wildly like a cartoon. They were all good people. The original Orbis would have barely affected them. Surely this one wouldn’t change them at all.

As she neared the center of the room, she saw her surroundings lit by a red glow from somewhere behind her. Glancing back, she saw the Conjurer once again, levitating at the top of the stairs holding a thin spear made of red light. Reaching into the backpack, Shudder pressed the button to activate Orbis, and heard the high-pitched whine as it charged.

“I should have known you were the real target, Shudder. You’re the only one of that lot who would try to come up with a plan to stop us. Can’t stand to see someone else succeed where Tlön failed?”

He was flying at her even faster than a sprint, spear leading his charge. Panicking, she tried to push through the crowd, but tripped over someone’s foot and landed sprawled on the floor. There was no time to get to her feet, there was no room to roll in either direction. The Crimson Conjurer appeared above her, his face lit by the glow of the spear, emphasizing the depth of his wrinkles and the cruelty of his scowl. 

The spear was thrust at her.

Something washed over her mind.

 


 

“We should go in dressed as clowns.”

Lucas looked up at Adam, trying to process what he’d just said. “Clowns?”

They were riding in one of STRIX’s armored vehicles, the second in the line that was currently making its way to Heaven Tower. It was a little cramped between Adam and Krisztina, but it was a strange relief to know that these STRIX vehicles were heavy-duty enough to handle Adam’s weight and he wouldn’t have to worry about portaling him.

“Yeah, they’ll be confused. ‘Where did all these clowns come from? Why are they here?’ And in the confusion, we can slip upstairs.”

Krisztina looked as confused as Lucas felt. “But we’re here with STRIX. They have authority. They have to let us in.”

“But then they’ll know we’re there,” Adam insisted. “If we do the clown thing, they’ll never see us coming.”

Lucas stared at Adam. His metallic face was completely serious. “Have I ever told you that you get very strange when you’re anxious?”

Finally—car rides took so long for someone used to portalling—the motorcade pulled up in front of Heaven Tower. They parked in the middle of the street, not bothering to concern themselves with the sparse night traffic, and STRIX soldiers armed with automatic weapons began to pile out.

As he exited the vehicle, Lucas caught sight of one of Valkyrie’s Einherjar flying past in the distance, using some sort of jetpack-like enhancement. He took out his phone and texted Sila to let them know they were moving in.

By the time Lucas’ small group inside, the lobby was already a flurry of activity. STRIX agents had commandeered the desk and were currently setting up laptops and other equipment to turn it into a temporary command center. The night receptionist had backed away, up against a wall, where he stared wide-eyed at the agents’ machine guns. A security guard was arguing with Commander Tomahawk.

“We need to get to the thirty-sixth floor,” Krisztina announced as they approached. “He isn’t going to have access.”

“Shouldn’t you have access?” Adam asked.

“Probably not anymore.” She gave the security guard an authoritative look. “Where’s Craig?”

“I just radioed him,” the guard replied. “He’s in the office. Told me to tell you all to wait.”

Krisztina held out her hand. “Come on. Hand over the nametag.”

“I can’t do that.”

Tomahawk glared at the guard. “You know disrupting a STRIX operation is a crime punishable by prison, don’t you?”

The guard took only the briefest moment to consider this information before removing his lanyard and handing over the badge with the smiling photo of himself next to the Heaven logo.

“Great. We’ll need to take a detour to the third floor,” Krisztina announced.

“Third floor, got it,” Lucas repeated. “Commander, you want to send a couple of agents with us?”

The commander nodded and gestured to a couple of agents who joined Lucas’ group in making their way to the elevator. He wished he could just portal directly to the upper floors, but Valpurgia’s wards prevented that, so he was stuck waiting impatiently as they made a stop on the third floor, intimidated another guard into handing over his keycard, and finally piled back onto the elevator. Adam expressed some reluctance to enter the elevator both times, but Krisztina insisted it could handle his weight.

Finally, they reached the thirty-sixth floor. While Lucas was expecting some sort of museum Valpurgia had dedicated to herself, he was surprised to find that the doors opened onto a mirror-walled hallway instead. Lucas stepped off the elevator to find himself reflected dozens of times over in the mirrors.

“I never imagined her aesthetic was so ‘amusement park,’” Adam said dryly.

“It’s not,” Krisztina explained, walking quickly to keep up with Lucas, the two agents trailing behind her. “But mirrors like these can confound certain interdimensional creatures. It’s where Mom keeps really important stuff.”

The hallway included turn after turn as the group slowly spiraled their way deeper into what seemed like it must be the heart of the building. Finally they reached an ornate black doorway with a magical sigil carved into it. Krisztina placed her hand on the sigil as she opened the door.

The room inside was remarkably simple. Empty white walls and a tile floor, with only a simple pedestal in the center, containing a single object; an impossible not-quite-a-cube which twisted and protruded in ways that seemed like an M.C. Escher painting come to life.

“There it is,” Krisztina said.

Hands shaking, Lucas stepped into the room, reached out, and picked up the cube. Despite its size, around three feet in length, it seemed almost weightless. Something flickered in his vision as he held it. If he looked hard enough, concentrated on the spaces between the places where the cube crossed itself in impossible ways, he could just see a glimpse of another place, a labyrinth of alabaster walls and Greek-style columns.

“I’m disappointed, Lucas,” said a voice from somewhere behind him. He and his companions whipped around as one to see Valpurgia in the doorway, dressed in an elaborate, regal black dress with various pieces of red jewelry. “You could have become so much.”

 


 

Whisper followed the woman in the blue mask—Blue Scorpion, it turned out—up the sides of the wall of the condominium. He had to admit he was slightly impressed, she was nearly as good at scaling a wall as he was. On the balcony, they made their way around Dawn’s pool and Blue Scorpion smashed her way through the glass door into the condo proper. At the same time, a trio of Arachne agents, having picked the lock, entered through the front door.

Undeterred by the darkness, Whisper easily spotted Sapphire Dawn sitting on the living room couch, dressed in an expensive-looking suit.

“You’ll have to forgive me for leaving the lights off,” she said. “I’m still adjusting to the changes.”

Whisper was upon her in an instant, claw wrapped around her throat. “The exosuits in the warehouse. The artifact in Heaven Tower. What else does Valpurgia have?”

Dawn smiled a smile worthy of a business magazine cover except, Whisper saw, that her canines extended further than they should. Before he could react, there was a moment of pressure on his wrist, and the world spun around him as he was flung against a wall. The impact was more disorienting than painful, as was the impact of the floor a moment later.

The trio of Arachne agents were attempting to fire their guns, but all three seemed to be failing at once.

“Please, those are Dawn Industries weapons,” Dawn explained. “It was easy to sell smart guns to STRIX with promises of ‘better monitoring’ and ‘accountability.’ And nearly as easy to convince Arachne that you knew how to deactivate the chips.”

Blue Scorpion drew her sword. “There’s no chip in this.”

Dawn stood slowly as Whisper pulled himself to his feet. Then, she lunged forward with impossible speed. Blue Scorpion swung her sword but found her wrist caught in Dawn’s hand.

“You all move so slowly now,” she said with glee. She jabbed her free hand into Blue Scorpion’s stomach, piercing deep into her torso.

Whisper rushed her, swiping with his own claws. The CEO dropped Blue Scorpion and quickly spun to meet his attack. However, Whisper was prepared for her speed this time, and phased through her hands before unphasing and slashing at her neck. He felt a moment of triumph as her neck opened up, spilling blood, but she pulled his now-solid body close and sank her teeth into his neck. They pierced his armor easily and he felt a sharp pain in Elise’s delicate neck.

He phased, but couldn’t phase out of her grip. Instead she came with him, falling through floor after floor and landing hard on a washing machine in the basement. He tried to fight back, tried to claw at her sides, her head, but he was quickly growing weak and disoriented. Finally, she released him, her neck wound now closed.

“Ah, I needed that.” She brushed back her hair. “Now I have a meeting to attend.”

The room blurred into a darkness that even Whisper couldn’t see through.

 


 

There was a collection of gasps and yelps of surprise. Voices rang out.

“Where am I?”

“Who are you people?”

“Were we kidnapped?”

To avoid being trampled by the feet moving all around her, Shudder scrambled to her feet. There was a sharp pain in her left shoulder. Touching it, she found that she was bleeding. She pulled out her phone and activated the flashlight, shining it on herself.

“Here! I can explain everything.”

Other phone’s lights illuminated her.

“Who are you?”

“I’ve seen her before. She works for Dr. Tlön.”

“She kidnapped us with mind control! That’s why we can’t remember what happened!”

Shudder was beginning to realize how bad her situation looked. She was in a room full of recently mind controlled people, standing next to a bag containing a modified mind control device.

“Hold on, this isn’t how it looks. Think about it, Orbis Tertius doesn’t even work that way.” She paused. “Of course, I’m now realizing that you’d have no way to know—”

She cut off with a holler of pain as someone gripped her wounded shoulder. Someone else grabbed her arm and she nearly dropped her phone. More figures were moving in. What was she supposed to do here?

“It was Valpurgia,” she protested. “She’s behind this.”

“Valpurgia is a superhero!”

“She’s a visionary!”

“She saved my life!”

Of course, they were all part of her cult. Shudder desperately tried to think of some way to prove the truth to them.

A flame appeared in the air, illuminating the Crimson Conjurer. “Let the girl go. I’ll handle this.”

Once again there was a chorus of responses.

“It’s the Crimson Conjurer. He’s one of the good guys.”

“Thank God.”

“It’s okay. He’ll get us home.”

The hands released Shudder and the crowd backed away as the Conjurer approached her. She wondered how sure she was that he had truly been under mind control.

“You remember what happened?” Shudder asked.

He touched a hand to his forehead. “My memory is a blur, but I remember befriending Valpurgia. And I’m sure I’ve worked with her for some time.”

Shudder’s hopes began to rise.

“But I also remember a mind controlling supervillain named Dr. Tlön and her lackey, Shudder.”

He began to advance, his face looking severe in the red glow of his flame. Shudder’s groveling instinct kicked in.

First step was to seem harmless. “Yes, yes, I used to be one of the bad guys, but not anymore. I mean, I’m not a good guy exactly, but I really am here to help.” That wasn’t good enough. She needed to try to make a connection. “Look, I think we even have a mutual friend. You know the Aerialist, right?”

The Conjurer halted, but his face was doubtful. “You’re friends with the Aerialist?”

“Yeah. Yeah. Look, I even know stuff about him. His name’s Ari. He used to teach high school biology. Uh, he caught the Rouge Renegade.”

The Conjurer took another threatening step forward. “Anyone could find that out.”

That was true. She needed something personal. She desperately searched her memory, but she could see that the Conjurer had little patience for this line of conversation. “H-he used to be bullied in school?”

The Conjurer’s eyes widened. “That’s…someone could guess that, but why would you choose that to guess?” He frowned at her. “You’re wounded. Did I do that to you?”

Shudder nodded. “My friends downstairs might be hurt, too, or…”

“I would never—” He halted. “It’s true, isn’t it? You freed us.”

She nodded again.

He turned to address the crowd. “This girl and I are going to go downstairs and get our bearings. The rest of you stay here. We’ll get you home soon enough.”

The crowd parted and allowed the Conjurer to lead Shudder to the stairs, pausing only to borrow someone’s shirt to make a makeshift bandage for Shudder’s shoulder. As they descended, Shudder called out. “We’re coming down. Everything’s good. We’re friends now.”

On the first floor, she found that her team was in better shape than expected. Ifrit and Bodkin were unwounded, while Gremlin only looked a little singed. It was hard to tell what shape Quetzal was in, aside from a new dent in her armor, but she stood with the rest, shining a bright built-in floodlight to illuminate the area.

“Shudder, you jerk,” Quetzal called out in a voice that suggested that she did not consider Shudder a jerk. “You activated the Orbis, didn’t you?”

“Lucky you were right about the wave being harmless,” Gremlin added.

“Well, technically we wouldn’t necessarily know if we were changed.” Shudder couldn’t resist the clarification even if it meant they might be angered. “I mean, to be sure we’d have to build a new brain scanner and take recordings of someone’s brain before and after Orbis.”

“Great, well, we’ll all just try not to be existentially concerned about that,” Ifrit said. 

“The crates are all exosuits,” Shudder explained to the Conjurer as the two of them joined the group. “Valpurgia was going to use them as an army in her attack.”

“It’s starting to come back to me,” the Conjurer replied. “I’m sorry for doubting you. Wait, but as I remember there was also—”

There was a loud thud from one of the crates.

“Get upstairs now,” he announced. “All of you.”

There was another thud. Quetzal turned to shine her floodlight at the crate in question. A moment later, the Conjurer let out a pained grunt, clutching his chest.

“What’s going on?” Shudder asked. “Are you hurt?”

“Valpurgia,” the Conjurer gasped. “She left a failsafe.”

“No, no,” Shudder protested. “You’re free of mind control. That should all be gone.”

The Conjurer shook his head, his expression strained. “Not the mind.”

It was in the heart. What was she supposed to do about that?

“Is there a doctor or nurse up there?” she called out.

At that moment, the crate door burst open and Quetzal’s light revealed a huge blue-skinned figure covered in broken cybernetics which glowed with embedded shards of something green.

Meerak Filvus.

They were much bigger than they’d been when Shudder had last seen them. Nearly twice as tall and bursting with muscles that seemed to strain against their cybernetics. She couldn’t imagine that being anything less than agony. Meerak turned their attention to the only people nearby.

“Okay, we can handle this,” Shudder instructed. “If Bodkin and Quetzal can get them out of the Conjurer’s ward then Ifrit can keep them pinned down, giving Gremlin an opportunity to—”

“No way, this is not what I signed up for,” said Bodkin, taking a step back.

“We can’t afford something else going wrong,” Ifrit agreed.

“Plus, we technically finished the job,” said Gremlin.

“Yeah, it’s time to clear out, Scaregirl,” Quetzal concluded.

Of course. They weren’t superheroes, they were small fry. They didn’t stand against impossible odds, they scattered when things took a bad turn. It was the only sensible thing to do. So why was Shudder’s instinct to keep fighting? 

Because otherwise innocent people might get hurt, of course.

The others ran. Going back? Trying to protect someone who was hurt? It was a good way to get yourself killed. They would separate and, after a bit of time had passed, would regroup at the nearest meeting place. Which, in this part of town, would be Serpent’s Lair. Shudder, however, stood before the collapsed Conjurer, looking up at Meerak, who sneered down at her. Did they have fangs now? Surely they could shapeshift those. They couldn’t be courtesy of Valpurgia, could they?

“Sila,” the Nanzaran growled in a voice so animalistic that it took a moment to register as a word. “I can smell their blood.”

She had, hadn’t she? Valpurgia had made Meerak into a vampire. It was apparently possible to do that to an alien.

Shudder was outmatched. She was alone, injured, and trying to protect someone who was completely helpless. Not to mention the crowd upstairs. She could see only one way out. It was a cowardly move, but Shudder had never claimed to be anything better than a coward.

“Yeah, they’re out there on patrol right now,” she said. “Shouldn’t be hard to find them. Oh, and you should have heard some of the stuff they’ve been saying about you.”

Meerak paid Shudder no more attention and with great strides, took off running, punching through one of the large garage doors to make an exit.

Shudder shook her hands and looked around, trying to figure out what to do. She couldn’t leave the Conjurer, but she also couldn’t let Sila face Meerak alone and without warning. 

She noticed a few of the civilians trickling down the stairs.

“Are you a nurse? Do you know CPR?” she asked.

“Yeah. What’s going on?” the figure replied.

She pointed at the Conjurer below her. “He’s having a heart attack. Help him and get someone to call an ambulance. You’re still in Fairfield. Near downtown, at…I don’t know the address, get someone to figure it out. I don’t have time.”

“Where are you going?” the figure asked.

“I think I’m chasing the thing that made that hole.” Her voice quavered as she pointed.

Taking a deep breath, she took off running, fishing her phone from her pocket and pulling up Lucas’ name. Why hadn’t she gotten Sila’s number?

 


 

“Adam, punch us a way out,” Lucas ordered. He clutched the artifact close. He would get Nova Legion out.

Adam expanded his fist as much as he could without it becoming unwieldy and thrust it into the nearest mirror, tearing through the mirror, the wall, and the mirror on its other side easily. He then walked through the hole he’d made, taking a bit more wall with his large body and creating enough space for Lucas and Krisztina to back through. He continued through wall after wall, Lucas and Krisztina trailing behind him and keeping their eyes on Valpurgia, who simply followed them at some distance with a smile on her face.

When he’d punched through the outer wall, Lucas nudged Adam aside and stepped to the edge. “Follow me,” he said.

Then he stepped off.

Saying a silent prayer to his absent mother, he tried to open a portal beneath his feet. Thankfully, warding worked in practice exactly as it did in theory. Now that he was past the outer wall, he was free to create portals as he pleased. He landed roughly in a park a few blocks away, then scrambled out of the way of the plummeting Adam. Krisztina landed a moment later and he closed the portal.

His heart wouldn’t stop pounding as he turned his attention to the artifact. “Okay, okay, okay, okay. Find Nova Legion. Open a portal to another dimension.”

He stared into the artifact. Once again, it took a moment, but just as before, in the parts that didn’t make physical sense, he saw that alabaster labyrinth. And there, on the floor, either exhausted or injured, the members of Nova Legion.

He opened a portal at once, just a few feet away.

“There they are!” Adam announced with excitement.

“Nova Legion!” Lucas called out. One of the members—Hypersonic—looked up.

There was a blur, flitting back and out of the portal faster than he could make out and suddenly the members were laying there, on his side of the portal. All except Hypersonic who stood before him, clutching a bleeding wound.

“Close it. Now!” Hypersonic demanded, before he collapsed in the grass. Lucas saw now that they were all wounded. Repulse’s armor was smashed to pieces. Titan was bleeding from gashes all over his body. And the Aerialist…

The Aerialist was missing an arm. The wound had been bandaged using a piece of Hex’s coat. But he looked pale, and Lucas couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

Lucas tried to close the portal, but nothing happened. He tried again. Still nothing. He didn’t understand. Opening and closing portals was as natural as moving his own body. But it was as if this wasn’t his portal at all anymore.

“Thank you, Lucas,” said a voice. His breath catching, he turned around to see Valpurgia standing before him. “Connecting this world to the demonic realm via this little labyrinth isn’t as convenient as opening a direct portal, but given your refusal to cooperate, it will have to do.”

She gestured and Lucas turned again to see the portal ripping wider and wider until it stretched the length of a football field and nearly as tall as a skyscraper. Winged creatures, some of them resembling gargoyles, others serpents, and others in shapes unlike any living thing began to trickle through. The fact that it was only a trickle and not a crowd was little consolation.

A shadowy shape formed itself into another woman, standing next to Valpurgia.

“Ah, hello, Sapphire. I trust your first feeding went well?” Valpurgia asked.

“I lucked out,” the woman replied. “A mortal came to me. One with a little something extra, I think. I feel amazing.”

“Well done, daughter,” Valpurgia replied. “As you can see, our main army is arriving. But we’ll have to protect the portal from any local magic-users. Our local forces have, unfortunately, been demolished. Thankfully, aside from that singular trump card, the opposition appears to be weaker than I predicted. We should have little difficulty.”

“There won’t be enough of you left for our friends to step over when I’m done with you,” Adam shouted, sending a fist flying at Valpurgia. 

The vampire seemed to glide across the grass to avoid it. “Daughter, do you mind?” she asked.

Sapphire was already pulling out a tablet. “Do you know who manufactured the nanites that make up your body?” she asked. “I’ll give you a hint.”

She swiped something and Lucas watched with horror as Adam’s body began to melt. He struggled to move, to scoop up some of the metal sliding down his shrinking legs, but his hand and fingers just joined the dissolving torso. Soon he was more puddle than person. With the last of his strength, he thrust the remains of his hand above his melted head.

And gave Sapphire the finger.

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