Outnumbered and surrounded Liam moved fast. Knowing his former teammates this would be an uphill battle. Letting them take the initiative was equivalent to giving up, something he couldn’t do.

Pulling out a foam grenade, a device that was becoming his go to tool, Liam sent it hurtling towards Ullr. To the average person the grenade was too close to avoid. But not his former leader, the man was blazingly fast. Using that speed Ullr spun elegantly out of the way. Easily avoiding the first attack.

As the projectile passed by, Ullr struck out with his hand. Using his super speed to knock the grenade out of midair. Trying to send it to a corner of the room. Somewhere the foam would be out of the way for the rest of the fight.

But Liam didn’t let that happen. With the grenade flying past Ullr, Liam triggered its detonation. Coating the outstretched Ullr in foam. The right side of his body covered in small white bubbles.

While Ullr was taking stock of his new predicament Liam had already turned to his next target. Launching a tranquilizer dart at H-Bar’s chest. But before he could see if it landed Liam shifted his focus again. Moving from one opponent to the next. A flash of light behind him hinting his former friend had blocked his last attack.

Trying to find his next target Liam was struck across the back. There was no sound of approaching footsteps or any other hint of the impending attack. It was completely unexpected. The force of the blow was focused into a point, a knife Liam thought as he scanned his fellow teammates’ locations. Skip was missing. Attacking his back, Liam realized. Teleporters were a real pain to deal with.

Before he could turn to face his literally backstabbing teammate, movement from the side drew Liam’s attention. Gladius was hurtling toward him. Faced with threats from multiple directions, Liam ignited a gloved hand. Waving the burning thing behind himself. Unable to turn around and find Skip Liam’s attack didn’t hit home, but it did force the other Hero to step back. The searing heat from Liam’s gloved hand, a decent deterrent. Hopefully this would cause Skip to hesitate before attacking again.

Gladius was upon him a moment later. Sword flying in fast. The ferocity of her attack taking Liam by surprise. Lifting his glowing staff in response, Liam prepared to meet the coming attack.

The two weapons clashed in a flash of sparks and clang of metal. For an instant Liam thought he’d blocked the blow. Only to see the top of the staff flying off as the sword sliced clean through it. Liam just fixed the thing and now it was broken again and he was left with a partial weapon.

Liam watched as the top of his staff spun in the air before bouncing to the ground a short distance away. He built the staff from the same material that encased him. If an attack could cut through the weapon, it would just as easily cut through the suit. He had to keep his distance.

Focusing his mind back on Gladius, Liam found her staring at her empty hand. Before the staff met its untimely end it’d lashed out with one final jolt of electricity. Just enough juice to cause Gladius to drop her sword. A small bit of luck that, but Liam wasn’t going to complain about any little advantage he could gain.

Balling her hand into a fist, Gladius attacked again. This time without her sword. The Knight swung a right hook at Liam as the latter deflected her blow with his broken staff. The staff bent from the attack, but held.

The next few attacks came in rapid succession. Liam was just able to keep her at bay, as he repulsed each blow. Using what was left of his staff to guard the space between them. The only thing to gain from their ferocious duel was keeping the rest of his traitorous team from pressing their own attacks.

After a few more unsuccessful strikes Gladius switched her plan of attack. Moving behind her shield before pushing forward again. She was going to bash him with her empowered shield. Something Liam very much wanted to avoid. Buying time to escape Liam hurled the remnants of his staff at the woman’s feet. Hoping to at least trip her up.

With no time to gauge if his desperate tactic worked, Liam spun around to escape the incoming steamroller. Only to see a new threat. A frosted white ball soaring towards him. Liam tucked into a defensive stance as the ball struck. Absorbing as much of the blow as he could. The impact from the exploding light stung, like being punched in the gut by a boxer. But it wasn’t enough to pierce through his armor. Liam stood strong, refusing to be pushed back by the force.

The momentary feeling of joy from blocking the attack was short lived as footsteps sounded behind. His staff hadn’t been able to slow Gladius down. Those were the last thoughts running through Liam’s head before he was sent flying across the room. A shield strike from Gladius wasn’t something he could shrug off.

Liam rolled into a heap on the far side of the room. Without waiting for the next attack he crawled to his knees. His back numb from the last strike.

“Warning, Warning!” his suit blared.

Several sensors had been destroyed from the blow. With so many systems malfunctioning his suit’s current state was hard to gauge. He could move, that was good, but did anything else work? He had no way of knowing until he did a system check or took the suit off and examined it. Neither an ideal situation in the middle of a fight.

A footstep from behind him was all the warning Liam got of the next attack. Twirling to face his foe a knife clashed into his suit. Scraping down the front until it found purchase between two plates of armor. Another push from his attacker and the blade sank between the plates. Digging into Liam’s side.

The pain that followed wasn’t pointed like the knife in his side. Instead it spread from the wound to engulf his entire stomach. Bringing with it a burning pain like a dying ember. Liam’s suit responded without command. Flushing his system with pain medication. A temporary solution, one he’d pay for in the morning. If there was another morning. However, it was enough to keep him in the fight.

Reaching out to grab Skip’s arm, Liam found the man already gone. Leaving his knife still embedded in Liam’s side. Inflicting damage and then getting out of harm’s way, the teleporter way to play.

Another incoming strike from a ball of bright light grabbed Liam’s attention. Still crouched over, Liam didn’t have time to move as the ball connected with his uninjured side. Sending him tumbling into the corner of a rare piece of equipment still in the factory. From where he lay, behind the machine, he was out of sight from his opponents. Giving him a moment to reorient himself from the chaos of the last few seconds.

Pulling himself together from the barrage of combat, Liam climbed back to his feet. His former teammates also took a moment to regroup. Liam peered at them. Arrayed in front of him like a force straight out of a nightmare.

The pause gave Liam a moment to wrack his brain. He’d thought about fighting his teammates before, like every Super he met. Devising strategies to counter them. It was an exercise Liam had engaged in when he first joined the team. Now it was time to put the plan to use.

H-Bar, on his left, drew Liam’s attention first. A ball of bleached light spinning around him. The counter to H-Bar was simple. Block his light source. Something Liam himself had made much more difficult. The man’s newest suit had several improved design elements made by Liam. Defeating those upgraded lights would not be easy. There had to be another way to get around them.

Gladius was the next person Liam focused on. She stood by herself on the far right. Clad in armor that made her even more imposing as an opponent. The counter for her was to overwhelm her with attacks. If possible attacking from multiple directions at once. Being the one outnumbered it wasn’t like Liam would have a chance to implement that plan. But there might not be a need to if Liam played his cards right.

Ullr was between the first two. Half his body had become rigid since Liam last looked. The foam covering him long since turned into a hard cement like substance. That was the first good sign from this entire fight. The plan for Ullr had been making the floor sticky to limit his ability to move. But his current situation achieved the same thing. Thanks to the little miracles his initial attack worked.

Moving to his final opponent he found the man farther back. Leaning over a balcony on the distant wall. Not that distances meant anything for a teleporter. One hand was reaching behind his back to unsheath a new dagger. His original one still embedded in Liam, though he couldn’t feel it over the drugs pumping through his system. Liam had thought of 2-3 ways to counter Skip. However, the problem with all Teleporters was that they were notoriously tricky to corner, but an idea had been forming on that front. There would only be one chance to try it so he had to make it count.

The problem was each opponent would require all his skill and a little luck to defeat. Going up against all of them at once, Liam didn’t have much confidence he could come away with a win. Which left only one option.

“What a great final battle! You die like a true warrior!” Gladius growled. Banging her retrieved sword against her shield.

We aren’t in the middle ages Liam thought. The armor she wore had gone to her head. They should send her to a shrink.

Looking up from his partially immobilized body, Ullr said, “It’ll be easier if you stop fighting. Less painful.”

Slim chance Liam would do that. He’d never been one to give up and wouldn’t start now.

With little flair Skip was gone from his perch. Behind, Liam thought as he reached his glowing hand of electricity backwards. A moment later swinging his other hand forward, flames licked his fingers.

Skip appeared a second later, right in front of Liam’s flaming hand. The man knew Liam was watching for him to teleport. And would expect another attack from behind. Thus he attacked from the front. Trying to change up his pattern and keep Liam guessing. The problem for him was Liam had seen Skip fight before and wasn’t so easily fooled. Throwing a fake attack backwards while the real thrust came from the front.

Liam’s burning hand connected with Skip’s side before the teleporter could attack. The blow less a punch and more a slap to the man’s chest. But it wasn’t the force of the attack that sent Skip falling backwards writhing in pain. No, it was the fire alight on his body. Crawling over his suit with an insatiable hunger.

With Ullr and Skip out of the fight, Liam moved ahead with the last part of his plan. Folding his hands to the side, Liam ignited the jet motors on his boots. Cranking them to full power. His HUD screamed a warning, the damaged suit would limit his ability to steer. That didn’t matter though. This would be his only chance, he needed to take it.

The boots were new tech his team had never seen. The models on his feet now were completed only a few days ago. With the test flights being carried out away from their prying eyes. Liam was planning on sharing the invention, but his work on the murder case had taken all his time. Leaving no chance to share the boots with the team. Luckily he’d just found the perfect opportunity to demonstrate.

The force from the boots sent Liam soaring into the air. If only he could see the looks on his teammates’ faces now. Escaping their grasp using a tool none of them knew of. Oh it must be excruciating for them. Liam pushed upwards. Angling towards the skylights above.

As Liam sped up away, H-Bar threw dozens of balls of light at the fleeing Hero. The factory illuminated in a sudden fireworks display. H-Bar using every last drop of his stored power in a last ditch effort to stop Liam’s escape.

Wielding every trick he had Liam skirted past all their attacks. His suit deploying flaps to change his flight path unpredictably.

Through the barrage of attacks Liam heard a loud cracking sound. As if concrete was being torn from a wall. Taking a moment to look back he saw Ullr pulling himself free of the foam cage. Something no mere human could do.

Liam turned back to his escape, darting straight for a skylight. A few hits from H-Bar wouldn’t kill him but Ullr was another story. The screech of metal being ripped apart a moment later sent chills down his spine. There was no time to turn around and look. His escape was so very close.

Reaching the skylight Liam threw an arm over his head to protect himself from the shattering glass. Not that he needed to, given the protection his suit offered. But what sane person would fly into a window and be fine with that? Not many, Liam was willing to wager.

Just as his arm broke into the freedom of the outside world a piercing pain shot through his leg. An attack from below had reached him. And now he was careening out of control. A new pain joining the subdued one in his chest. This one burned through the drugs already in his system. Screaming its angry voice into Liam’s ear.

Alarms blared anew in Liam’s helmet from the sudden twisting of his body. Thrust in his right boot was gone. While the left was still running full power. Sending him flying in a random direction.

With a sickening crunch Liam crashed into the side of the skylight as he flew by. All sembalance of control gone as he spun away from the impact. Sky and ground rotating past his visor in ever faster cycles. Leaving Liam unsure which was which. All he knew was that he’d made it out of the building, the rest was a blurry mess.

Liam tried to regain control, but to no avail. Every thruster and flap he activated seemed to accelerate the spinning. Nothing he tried made any difference.

With no warning, the suit’s airbags deployed as Liam smashed into something, a wall. Then something else as he ping ponged his way to the ground through a number of collisions. At long last Liam came to rest. The lights in his suits flickered for a moment before going out.

Fighting off the blurriness in his vision, Liam spit blood into his helmet as he tried to move. A searing pain brought him back down. Blackness taking ahold. The last thing he heard before passing out were the doors to the factory slamming open. The realization he hadn’t traveled far enough, was his final unsettling thought.