The owl danced before Cass’ eyes, swirling about in the air and showing her where to go, showing her where to look. She stood at the midpoint of the cosmos, the exact center between Heaven and Hell, a floating platform of crude stone floating over the black-burning maw of damnation and beneath the endless shining skies of eternity. All was plain to see from where she stood, and she looked down. 

The Lady of the Legion gathered the raw Energy of the deceased, the light of their souls, and gathered them inside the skulls offered as a gift to Azazel. Their bodies, their sins, were kindling for blood-magic, and their souls fuel for the great machine that would raise the Lady’s father from the Floodwater. Two skulls, both with the same inscription. One was held by the church, hidden in a safe within the rectory of St. Joseph’s; another held by the enemy, gathering strength as the Legion sprawled across the city of Boston and claimed further and further lives.

Without it, the Legion’s plan would fail- they needed both skulls filled to the brim with Soul Energy to raise the High Father from his watery grave. With the might of Samyaza, Hell and Earth alike would fall to the Legion and the King of the Watchers. 

Cass screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The air swirled around her, glass and gravel and stone a gyrating whirlwind. And near her, next to her, was…

Matt?

Matt floated next to her in the damp moonlight, unconscious and haggard. Father Gonzalez was in a similar state of affairs on her left hand side. Above her was Zack, sobbing and bleeding out the stomach; below her was the Sin-Eater, the diabolical detective who had slayed her mother. 

The Owl screeched. 

Cass channeled all the debris, all the wreckage into a continuous stream and poured it towards the Sin-Eater, a tendril of jagged glass and sharpened wood that would rip the wretched woman to shreds. Hate fanned the flames inside her mind, burning hot and dark as the fields of damnation. Her arms and chest cried out with hideous stinging pain, but she ignored it as she pushed her onslaught towards her victim.

It stopped an inch from the Sin-Eater’s throat. 

It stopped when Cass saw, directly in front of her, Bishop Roberts floating limply, his blood flowing out of him like a river.  

And she remembered the last time she’d seen him like that. Tied up in the basement. Someone monstrous about to torture him for information, about to cross a line she could never walk back from.

In her mind’s eye, she saw her friends, her family: she saw Patrick and Victoria, Amy and Debbi, Richard and Jason, Tim and Damian; she saw Heather, and Nicole, and Matt; she saw the Bishop, as he’d been on the night he and Cass had first met, when he’d offered her a chance to do real good in the world. ‘You have an infinite potential, Ms. Ortiz. I hope you see what I see when you look in the mirror.

Cass knew she wouldn’t see that anymore if she did this, knew she wouldn’t be able to put this back together if she broke it now. 

So she didn’t.

She lowered herself, and her friends, and her enemy, and the remnants of her church, back to the ground, slowly and with as much finesse as she could manage. The rubble was slippery in her telekinetic fingers, and she feared it would crumble in her over-tight grip, but she managed to settle everything onto the ground. 

Everyone was still alive when they returned to the ground. 

The Owl flew around Cass, and faded from view. Her chest heaved up and down, oxygen slowly, blessedly, pumping through her and reminding her of the ground on which she stood. Brown wood shrapnel, she thought, red glass shrapnel. White marble shrapnel… Fucking shit that’s a lot of shrapnel.

The greater awareness, the greater power, began to fade with each breath she took. All that was left was awareness of where she was: the wreckage of St. Joseph’s. It looked like a tornado had blown through the place. White… Boy, she thought, looking at Matt lying safely on his back, auburn hair. Blue armor. What else?

A nagging sensation, a gnawing, trampling feeling persisted deep within her mind. As if a boar were loose, destroying and eating everything in sight. Something trying to read her mind. Someone shifting underneath the wreckage, as if trying to sneak around behind Cass and get the drop on her.

Cass stood at the center of a pile of rubble, and she raised her right hand and pulled the Sin-Eater from the ground. Cass twisted her wrist three-hundred and sixty degrees, and DiLorenzo screamed as her dagger slipped from her broken hand. Cass yanked the Sin-Eater over towards her and charged her hand with White Light. 

Screaming, she grabbed the Sin-Eater by the lapel and slammed her into the ground with the full force of a telekinetic blast. The White Light flowed through her, and the blackened magic within the detective’s soul began to vaporize. It flowed out of her like darkened mist, and her spine shattered as it met the ground. 

Cass stood over the detective- DiLorenzo had no movement at all below her chin. Her hands, her feet, her arms and legs, were all completely still. “Y-you… You bitch! You fucking bitch!” DiLorenzo screamed. “I’ll kill you for this- first my husband, then my son, now my arms and legs- I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU FUCKING-”

That was when Matt walked up and brought the jagged edge of his glowing chainsaw to her forehead. “You’ll tell us what your boss is planning, is what you’ll-”

“Actually, that’s not necessary,” Cass said. “I saw it. In a vision.”

“Oh,” Matt said. “Sweet!” 

He brought the back end of the chainsaw down onto DiLorenzo’s face, knocking her out. 

Father Gonzalez groaned and crawled over to them. “What happened?”

“I, uh, sorta got carried away there,” Cass said. “Wrecked the place- I’m sorry. I’ll help fix it-”

From beneath a pile of wooden rubble, a neon pink glow sang out. The rubble raised itself, both the pile atop the source and the wreckage all around, and knitted itself back together. All of it, every scrap and every piece and every microfiber, returned to where it had been before Cass had destroyed it. Within seconds, St. Joseph’s was exactly how it had been before the evening’s violent proceedings. 

The neon pink glow faded, and when it was gone, only Zack remained, passed out on the floor, a bullet lodged in his belly keeping the blood flow damned.

And his hands were glowing with neon pink light.

Cass tilted her head to the side. No, no it couldn’t be- the odds were way too slim. There was absolutely no way that Nicole’s shithead younger brother was… 

… Was… 

… Was her sister. 

No. It couldn’t be. This had to be something else- Zack had channeled the Power into the wreckage of the church itself. That counted as channeling through an object- that was just like what Matt did. Right? That had to be it. Had to be. 

Right?

“Huh?” Matt said. 

Cass opened her mouth, but before she could speak, an explosion shook the sky outside. 

“Dammit,” Cass whispered. 

“Language,” Father Gonzalez said. 

“Seriously?”

“Always.”

Cass sighed. “Okay, look- things are going sideways outside, we’ve got two injured here. And also DiLorenzo, who you should probably call the cops on and tell them what she told us about killing her comrades. Matt and I need to get back out there- you feeling up to that, Pendejo?”

Matt raised his chainsaw and made the blade spin using only his mind. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said in Spanish. 

“I’ll hold down the fort here,” Gonzalez said, also in Spanish. 

“Alright then,” Cass said, en espanol, “We’ve got a night to take back.”

***

Heather’s glowing fist collided with a diabolically corrupted phone charger, the cord an elongated white serpent, the charger itself a sharp-fanged, electrically charged maw. It slithered out of the way, and a dozen other demonic power cable snakes leaped upon her. She tried what she’d seen Nicole and Cass do before, channeling White Light through her entire body and releasing it like a bomb, but it only shot out a few feet before fading. 

Still, three of the cable-serpents recoiled and fled from it, so at least it was something. 

That was when a demonic laptop, flying through the air like a bat, descended on her, and to her chagrin she was forced to shatter it with her glowing fist. “LITTLE WORSE THAN MAN, LITTLE BETTER THAN A BEAST!” she screamed as she turned someone else’s property into a worthless collection of silicon shards. 

“I don’t really think that quote works in this context, babe!” Debbi said, stunning the possessed humans- their classmates, residents of Ditko Hall presumably- within shining bursts of light as they mobbed them from all sides. The two of them floated above a crowd on a street bursting with chaos, windows shattered and stores looted and fires raging all around them. 

“Hey, who’s the English major here?” Heather said. 

“You,” Debbi rolled her eyes, floating next to Heather as they backed further and further into the air. “Hey, how’s that fantasy novel of yours coming along?”

“You evil, evil woman,” Heather smirked. A flying toolbox, wreathed in black flames, opening and closing like a mouth with screwdrivers and wrenches for fangs, came soaring at them, and Heather shattered it with a glowing fist. “Should we really be doing all this banter right now, though? Feels inappropriate.”

“Real talk, Green?” 

“Yeah, Purple?” 

“The banter’s the only thing keeping me from hyperventilating right now,” Debbi said. “Don’t tell the others, though. I’m gonna need to start cultivating a whole ‘fearless leader’ thing from now on- don’t wanna sully the image before it’s even established.” She grabbed hold of a four-headed demonic pigeon as it dive-bombed them, surged White Light through it, and released it as four totally normal, very confused pigeons. 

The demonic party-goers below, however, showed no sign of slowing down. 

“This is gonna be tricky,” Debbi said. 

“Yeah, without Nicole here I don’t know how we can avoid exorcizing the demons without hurting these poor people,” Heather said. 

“I’ll try stunning them again,” Debbi said. “After that, speedrun exorcisms?”

“Good a plan as any.”

Debbi shone a massive spire of light over the crowd, and she and Heather dove into the fray, grabbing each hand or head or leg or torso they could reach and funneling Holy Light into them. They made this work for above a minute before Debbi was ripped off her broom and tossed onto the ground. 

“NO YOU DON’T!” Heather said, jumping from her broom and burying her fist in the gut of a demon. It exploded with black smoke, all of it rushing out at once, but the human who remained in the aftermath cried out with pain as he gripped his ribs. “Shit,” Heather said, as the crowd began closing in on them. 

Dozens of hands reached for Heather and her girlfriend. 

They all stopped short, freezing wholesale and then one by one flying through the air to the left. Heather’s eyes followed the trail and saw Cass was the endpoint, flying towards them with a boy in blue armor wielding a chainsaw gripping her tight and riding behind her. One by one, Cass held them and exorcized them. Matt jumped off his broom and, his chainsaw resplendent with Holy Light, set to work on vanquishing the diabolically infested objects. 

“OH FUCK YES!” Heather shouted, then started grabbing people and exorcizing them as she went. Debbi joined in as well, and after twenty minutes, the street was clear. 

“Is that it?” Matt said. “Did we save the-”

Another explosion, this one two blocks east. 

“Dammit,” Matt said. 

“Just had to say it, didn’t you, Pendejo?” Cass said. 

“We need to find Amy and Nicole,” Debbi said. “Where we find them, we find Winona, and we put a stop to this.”

“Not quite,” Cass said. “I had a vision. This isn’t one of those things where we kill the boss and all the drones just go away. We need to deal with every demon in this city before they raise enough Soul Energy to resurrect Samyaza. And we need to destroy the Skulls that Winona has. And we need to take down Winona.”

“Fuck, that’s a long to-do list,” Heather said. 

“You’re telling me,” Cass grimaced. 

“Where do we start?” Matt asked. 

Heather looked to Debbi, and after heaving a heavy sigh, her girlfriend said, “I think I have an idea. Do we still have the other skull?”

Cass furrowed her brow. “... Why?”

“We’re gonna need to go get it.”

“Are you insane?! What if we’re followed and jumped?! What if we play into the enemy’s hand?”

“It’s a risk we have to take,” Debbi said. She stepped forward and put a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Cassandra. Please. I need you to listen to me on this. I need you to trust me.”

Cass met her gaze, then gulped and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”

***

Nicole and Amy flew at the edge of the shoreline, hugging the coast beneath the clouded-over sky as midnight slowly inched towards them. Nicole joy and elation fought for space with her fear and her anger. She banked a sharp-left and shot towards Winona at a rising diagonal angle, while Amy dive-bombed Winona from directly above. Winona shot forward, but Nicole slid into the turn and delivered a punch to the back of Winona’s skull. 

“GAH!” Winona cried as she rotated to face Nicole. 

Amy shifted and crashed into Winona, ramming her stomach and sending her into the water below. 

“NICE!” Nicole said, giving a big smile and a bigger thumbs-up to her… Girlfriend? Maybe? Possibly. She was certainly open to it- that kiss certainty seemed like the start of something. She felt amazing, in spite of the danger, in spite of the ever-present demons, in spite of everything that had happened and could happen. She’d been trapped, and she’d broken free; she’d seen herself, and she’d faced her and accepted her. She felt like she could do anything, felt invincible, felt-

- Like Winona was shooting a lance of blue energy at her!

Nicole summoned her shield and flew in front of Amy, while Amy weaved a wall of shadows over the water’s surface. It extended to thirty feet in the air, and ran along the coast in both directions. Amy floated next to her, heaving and sighing, sweat dripping down her face and falling into the shadows. 

“... Should I… Should we use Hellfire?” Amy asked. “Finish her off?”

A lump formed in Nicole’s throat. She wondered about that herself. The original plan had been to talk to Winona, try to get her to agree to a ceasefire, but after tonight… After the demon, and the cage, and everything she’d done to the residents of Ditko Hall, and everything happening on the shore… Nicole wasn’t sure it would work. Nicole wasn’t sure if she wanted it to work, a thought that lowered her into a mosquito-infested swamp in the bowels of her mind. “I-”

A lance of Hellfire erupted from the darkness, an obsidian arm reaching for the moon as if to pluck it from the sky and bring it crashing down upon the earth. Nicole and Amy flew out of the way, further and further in separate directions as the width and breadth of the Hellfire beam expanded and cast a sulfurous, smoky taint over the water. 

Nicole shielded herself and flew towards the shore. Best to regroup while the shadows parted. Winona shot out of the water, screaming and crying and giving chase to Nicole as the two zipped and zigged and zagged across the night sky. Nicole turned and spun- she needed to get to the shore with Amy and start doing damage control, but if she lured Winona there, she might make it worse. Winona might just start lobbing missiles left and right, destroying everything she laid eyes on. Based on the volume and coherency of the nephilim’s shrill screaming, Winona didn’t seem like she had a ton of capacity for rational thought right now. 

So play on the irrational, Nicole thought. 

She smirked, then vanished her broomstick right out from under and plummeted into the water below. The cold, dark, salty ocean opened up for her all at once, and instantly she felt at home. The skies aren’t mine, Nicole thought, Not just yet. But this… This is all me. 

Winona screamed, swinging her sword and launching a bale of Hellfire at Nicole. Nicole shielded herself, the Pink aura taking the blunt of the blow. A blue missile fired at her next, and Nicole simply ducked beneath the water’s surface and re-emerged a few feet away. They repeated this sequence again, again, again-

“What’s the matter, ‘Nona?” Nicole smiled. “Never played whack-a-mole?”

“Hold still you little shit!” Winona screamed. 

“Gosh, you really need to work on that temper of yours- you’ll break out with acne if you don’t get that stress under control!”

“HOW DARE YOU?! I’M FUCKING GORGEOUS! AND UNLIKE YOU, I ALWAYS WILL BE, YOU FREAK!” Winona bellowed, Hellfire surging on her sword and blue Angelic Energy exploding on her left hand. Nicole noted how far she kept those apart from each other- one was Angelic, the other was Demonic. Could be you couldn’t cross the streams.

Got a hypothesis, now test it, Nicole thought. 

She swam and swam and swam, diving beneath the water and letting the ocean take the brunt of the diabolical and divine onslaughts. Over and over again, until finally, Winona fired both beams at once and the two slammed into each other and exploded in the nephilim’s face. 

Winona tumbled into the water below, and Nicole summoned her broom and skimmed the ocean’s surface over to her. She rammed Winona just as she reached the surface, and vanished her broom again and pulled them both into the water. And then Nicole punched her, again and again and again. Fury, clean and cold, coalesced within her as she struck Winona’s face time and time again. 

Finally, Winona dragged her sword from beneath the water’s surface and ignited it with Hellfire. She swung it towards Nicole’s face. 

Nicole’s hands swelled with Pink Light, and she clapped her hands together and caught the sword between her palms. Nicole channeled her White and Pink Light and fought against the Hellfire blade while she and Winona both screamed and kicked and thrashed, neither letting go as they struggled to keep above the water. 

***

Amy crashed and tumbled onto the floating metal docks of Boston Harbor, rolling across the surface and heaving deep breaths. The amount of shadows, of flying, of fighting tonight was draining her, but she got up instantly and zoned in on Nicole and Winona fighting in the water. 

“She’ll never be hurt again,” Amy said under her breath. “Never again-”

“You really are determined to throw it all away for her, aren’t you?” a familiar, snide, condescending voice said behind her. 

Amy’s pulse skyrocketed and shadows gathered in her hands as she pivoted a hundred and eighty degrees and found Astra standing there holding a spear, the bladed end of which burst with black and purple flames. “Daughter.”

“Astra,” Amy gritted her teeth. 

“So you and this… what was his name again? Nicolas?” Astra asked. 

“NICOLE! HER NAME IS-”

“Yes, yes, you’re hopelessly devoted to him-”

“HER!”

“And you’ll cosign all of… Her… Nonsense forever more. How terribly, sickeningly sweet,” Astra rolled her eyes. “Satan, Sin, and Death- you’re worse than I was with your father.”

“... What the hell are you-”

“What can I say, I cared for Patrick quite a bit. Do you not believe me?”

There were a million questions Amy had for this woman. But right now, with everything going on, there was only one that seemed relevant. “What are you doing here, Astra?”

“I came here to offer you a gift,” Astra said blandly. She extended the spear towards Amy.

Amy took a reflexive step back. “I don’t want anything from you!”

“Not even when it will help you win this fight? Surely you’re not that prideful.”

“I don’t care!”

“Don’t you?” Astra said, pointing over Amy’s shoulder with the spear. 

Amy turned, and saw Nicole struggling to hold back the Hellfire blade as she and Winona fought in the water. 

“Think of it in terms of math,” Astra said. “I know how much you like math-”

“I don’t. At all. It was always my worst subject growing up.”

“A positive and a negative equal a negative- hence Winona’s Angelic Energy and Hellfire exploding when they come into contact with one another. But a negative and a negative equals a positive. Therefore-”

“Two Hellfire sources cancel each other out,” Amy said. “Like I did early when I snuffed out her attack. Fine then- I can get a power-up from Nicole.”

Astra sighed, eyes narrow, spare hand on her hip, teeth grinding against each other. “Slight problem: your… Concubine is all the way over there, and all… Her… energy is going into holding back that barrage. If she gives you a ‘power-up’ as you call it, her shield will be compromised and she’ll die. But if you use this, you won’t need the power up- this is a demonic weapon. Winona can make it function, but you’re a child of Hell- you can make it work for you. Unlimited Hellfire, as much as you want, and able to cancel out Winona’s attack.”

Amy’s eyes narrowed, and her fists tightened. “Why are you doing this? Trying to get me on your side!? I’m not gonna help you take over Hell- your vision for it, for me, is sick and twisted-”

“This has nothing to do with that, you idiot!” Astra barked. “This is a gift. For my daughter. You were right before- I have had other children. But none of them are around anymore. You’re my first child in hundreds of years. I’d like you to survive.”

“Even if I accept this, it doesn’t change anything between us!” Amy said. 

“I know,” Astra said softly, a gentle smile on her face. “You’ve made your choice. And I may not like that or respect that, or you, but as your mother I do have to accept it. And you. I think you’ll come over to my side in time, on your own. But I won’t force you to do anything. Take this. Think of it as… What was it you said before? Ah yes: child support.”

Amy stared at Astra, at the black plume burning at the end of the spear. She looked back to Nicole in the water, struggling more and more, the blazing edge of Winona’s sword inching closer and closer. 

Amy reached out for the spear. 

***

The horrible heat began to touch the skin of Nicole’s face as her shield slowly started flickering and the sword began to lower. Winona smiled rapturously, licking her lips and cackling. 

Nicole screamed. 

Winona screamed back. 

And then the fire died. It fled from the blade, and flew through the air until it gathered in the blade of a spear held in Amy’s hands as she charged towards them atop her broomstick. 

“What the Blue Blazes?” Nicole said. 

“Astra,” Winona grinded her teeth. 

Amy closed the gap and swung the staff of the spear into Winona’s jaw, knocking her below the water. Amy extended her hand, and Nicole grabbed it and was pulled from the water. On instinct, Nicole let her soul sing and summoned her broom, and she and Amy faced Winona together as she bobbed in the water. 

Winona ignited her Hellfire sword again, but Amy drained it all away and collected the Hellfire in her own weapon. Then the fire died, and all that remained was a normal spear and a normal sword. 

“Where did you get that?” Nicole asked, wide-eyed.

“Family heirloom,” Amy said. 

“Fucking succubi whores,” Winona grumbled. 

“Don’t talk to her that way!” Nicole snapped. Then, she looked back to Amy and said, “Though I’ll admit that spear is giving me a few ideas- do you have anything like that at home?”

Both Winona and Amy’s jaws dropped, faces turning red.

“What?” Nicole asked. “I don’t mean in terms of size….” She trailed off as she realized what she was saying, and went wide-eyed herself. What the heck- sure, she thought things like that now, had ever since she’d hatched and her sexuality had seemingly flipped on like a light switch, but she didn’t say them out loud. What had gotten into her-

Amy poked her with a glowing finger. 

“What was that for?” Nicole asked. 

“Just making sure you’re not still possessed,” Amy said, still recovering from the image Nicole had evidently planted in her mind. 

“Does that count as fingering?” Nicole asked, then gulped. Oh Blue Blazes- this was what the demon meant about meeting myself, about letting my true self out of the box, isn’t it?

“I was gonna say that,” Winona mumbled. “Whatever. I don’t care. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

Winona readied a blast of Angelic Energy in her palm. 

Amy channeled a bale of Hellfire into her spear. 

Nicole flew prepped a shield and floated in front of Amy as her girlfriend (?(hopefully)) balanced the spear on her shoulder and extended the pyre in front of her. 

And then a light show exploded in the sky above, golden with streaks of purple. As it faded, a single flier on a broomstick loomed in the skyline above the city. And even from this distance, Nicole could see she was holding something. 

Something that looked like a goat’s skull. 

“Well would you look at that?” Winona said. 

She snapped her fingers, and a pulse of Heavenly Energy shook the air. Amy fired a bolt of Hellfire, and Nicole shielded them both. 

` The dust settled, and Winona flew through the sky towards the skull. 

Nicole turned and shot after Winona, Amy managing to keep pace with her. 

In spite of the situation, in spite of everything, Nicole turned to Amy as they flew and said, “But seriously, have you got something like that at home?”

Amy giggled nervously. “Down, girl. Let’s get through this first.”

“Heh. Right,” Nicole chuckled. Something about that, about her own laughter at that moment, gave her pause. Later, she thought. Right now, focus on saving the day. Pink rocket time, pink rocket time, pink rocket time!

They caught up, floating behind Winona as she levitated before Debbi and Heather. Debbi held the goat’s skull in her left hand, while her right throbbed with Holy Light. Nicole put a hand in front of Amy- Winona hadn’t yet registered they were there. Best to keep the element of surprise.

“Howdy,” Debbi said, her smirk so smug it made Winona look downright humble. 

“Oh great, the little sister and her meathead girlfriend showed up for the party,” Winona said. 

“Here’s the deal,” Debbi said. 

“No deal,” Winona said. “I’m not dealing with some no-name lackey-”

“Excuse you? Lackey? Bitch, you’re talking to the duly appointed leader of the Magical Girl Exorcist Squad! The name’s Debbi Donahue- try to get it right!”

Nicole furrowed her brow in confusion- she was under the impression Debbi didn’t wanna be in charge. Guess she’d had a change of heart. Good for her!

Amy gave her sister the thumbs’ up, while Debbi and Heather tried to not register her and Nicole’s presence. 

“Fine then, oh great and venerable leader of the magical girls,” Winona rolled her eyes. “What is this deal of which you speak that I will most likely reject out of hand?”

“We know you need this,” Debbi said, extending the goat’s skull. “So you can resurrect dear old dad. You want it, call off your pigs. This thing’s been gathering Soul Energy all night, surely it’s got enough by now. Especially after we killed the Sin-Eater and Aidan.”

Winona said, “WHAT?!”

“You heard me,” Debbi said. 

Nicole gulped silently. That had to be a lie- they wouldn’t have… No, no they wouldn’t have done that. Not to a comatose person at least- the Sin-Eater was another story. 

“I don’t believe you,” Winona said, wings fluttering. 

“Believe what you want- you’re all alone now,” Debbi said. “You want any of them back, least of all your father, you need this. And given that this is Diabolical Power, I wonder what would happen if I exposed it to some good ol’ fashioned Holy Light….”

Debbi’s glowing hand inched closer to the skull. 

Winona channeled and aimed a blast of Angelic Energy. 

Amy whispered to Nicole, “Give Debbi a boost! Now!”

Nicole nodded and lobbed a ball of Pink Light at Debbi, who in turn shot off a blast of Purple Light… No, no Energy. That was what Debbi had- Angelic Energy, or something like it. It collided with Winona’s blast and nullified it wholesale, leaving only a dull ringing sound in its place. 

Winona spun around, finally registering Nicole and Amy’s presence. Nicole waved, and Amy gave her the middle finger. 

“You bitches,” Winona started, only for Heather to slam into her as Nicole lobbed another ball of Pink Energy at her. 

Winona went flying to the city below and left a crater in the ground. 

Nicole and the others flew down to meet her, and found Cass and Matt on the ground. Cass held her palms over Winona’s crater, and Winona gritted her teeth as she struggled to break free. Matt… Matt had armor. And a glowing chainsaw. Good for him!

“Nice work, team,” Debbi said. 

“Nice plan, Captain,” Heather side-eyed her girlfriend. 

“Oh, stop,” Debbi said. She held the skull over Winona and reached for it with her hand, while chaos sang throughout the city and fires burned and cars tipped over. “Now make your choice, you fucking asshole, or I’ll make it for you.”

“... No deal,” Winona growled. “I can always start over. Never too late.”

“Fine then. Have it your way.” 

Debbi tossed the skull over to Matt, who revved his glowing chainsaw and swung it into the skull. It ripped to shreds, and the swaths of resonant shadows housed within flickered and died. 

A cold wind rushed out and gripped the city, and Winona screamed. 

Cass cried out as her nose bled and she was knocked back ten yards, and Winona rose from her crater as a column of blue light shot into the sky. She rose, and when she did, she was a mass of swirling clockwork cogs and gears dotted with furious eyes, surrounded by a dozen angel’s wings and illuminated by a severe blue halo. She rose into the sky, screaming, baying for blood. The Lady of the Legion had shown her teeth. 

All around them, the Legion gathered in a circle, monsters infesting objects and humans alike. They began to close in.

“What do we do now, fearless leader?” Cass said, gathering herself from the ground. 

“I’ll admit, I really expected her to take the deal,” Debbi said. “I’m taking suggestions from the team.”

“I’ve got one,” Nicole said, “But it’s not an idea or a plan so much as a concept.”

“I’m listening,” Debbi said. 

“Leeroy Jenkins maneuver,” Nicole grinned. 

Debbi laughed. “You think that’ll work?”

“All of us together? I think we’re not getting a better shot than we are now.”

“I second Nicole’s plan,” Amy said. 

“Shocker,” Cass monotoned.

“I also vote for Ms. Nygaard’s plan,” Matt said. 

“Seriously, she’s a year older than us,” Cass said. “I’m in too, though.”

“Well that’s that, then,” Debbi said. “Majority rules. LET’S FUCK ‘EM UP!”

And so, the six of them dove into the fray once more as the Devil’s Eve wore on.