So, my sister fainted, my workplace is under attack, and I have literally nobody to help me. Great way to end off the day. Already had enough scary stuff happening, but sure, screw me over again!

Ahhhh… I need to just calm down and think this all through.

Okay Quincy, think… What would your idol do… Do I have any idols? Nope. Welp, I guess I gotta do what I’m best at…

“STOCKLORD!!! BLACKOUT!!! TWEE!!! HELP ME!!!” I screamed like a little bitch. “I’LL EVEN SETTLE FOR YOU, SAL!!!”

I sat there, racking my brain for options, my sister still limp on the floor. I decided to grow a brain and a dick and do something. I grabbed Selene by the arms and dragged her out of the break room. Fortunately for me, I think they are attacking from the other end of the building where the entrance was, so I had a bit of time before they showed up. I just prayed the explosions I heard meant they weren’t also sneaking in through the secret back entrance.

I went into the hall, Selene’s wool coat picking up every spec of dirt on the floor as she was unconsciously dragged like a limp ragdoll. She was about the same level of lifelike in this state though.

Luckily I still felt the warmness of her blood pumping through her hands, so I just hoped she’d wake up quickly. She wasn’t too hard to drag, but she was gonna slow me down if some baddies showed their faces.

I saw through the window over the other side of the building through the center area, the attack had only just begun, and gunfire rang out. The 3D model of Stocklord’s head projected in real time as he made the announcements. I only realized then that I was expected to defend him, since he was basically the golden treasure at the center of our metaphorical temple.

I didn’t know who these guys were (although I assumed TUHF) or what they wanted, but they seemed violent, and at any moment they could pop through a portal and stick a bullet through my skull. I had to be on my guard, which the anxiety of that made my guts churn.

Thankfully, I wasn’t in much danger yet, and I had a bit of hope. I knew one person who could help me fight these people. Although, it’d be hard, even with her.

I went through one of the many portals and popped out where I needed to be, Twee’s office. She had a bunch of black curtains up, and the door was locked. She never let anyone inside, and I think there could be several reasons why due to what I knew about her. None of them were good.

Dragging Selene over, I tapped at the door multiple times, no answer.

“If you’re trying to get in, don’t even think about it.” she said from inside. “The door is triple-layered with steel and held with the strongest-”

“Twee, it’s me.” I said, skipping the rundown of dumb security purchases she’s made. “Get out here, we’re under attack.”

“Yeah? I’m under attack too. Go away and respect my privacy.” she replied sharply.

“Like seriously, how have you not heard the explosions?” I asked, genuinely curious if she was deaf or not.

There was a short pause and then I heard her boot up the camera above the door, looking out at me. Everyone who walks past her office has their privacy violated like this. And she says she’s got privacy issues…

“Oh, it really is you, Quincy. I was just joking about the explosions. I heard them… I was gonna get up in a sec.” she lied obviously. I decided not to comment on it.

Within a couple seconds, I heard some metal shifting and locks turning as the door swung open. Behind her was another door, classic Twee, needing an airlock for her room. I suppose it could be described as a very obvious and telling representation of her emotional state. I was just more surprised I’d not seen it in action before.

“Well, I was looking at the security systems, and they seem to have breached the front entrance. They are still there, right?” Twee asked, looking blankly at her phone.

“They seem to be, I’m not going near that crap. You’re the bodyguard here.” I replied.

“Yeah, I get it. I’m calling Stocklord.” she said, dialing the boss.

Ring ring ring…

It finally went through, and we heard a panicked and angry Stocklord on the other end.

“What is it, Twee?!” he screamed, on speaker.

“Are you in danger?” Twee asked, shaking her head at me.

“Yes. Does it sound like I’m at the goshdarn beach!? Get your ass over here!”

“On my way, your highness.” she sighed, hanging up and walking toward the next portal in the ring, leading.

“Wouldn’t a text be better in this situation?” I said, beginning to follow.

“Have you seen the boss try to text? His bones don’t register much of a signal to the phone. He has to press like five times per letter.”

“Yeah, good point.” I said, chuckling.

“What’s with your sister, by the way?” Twee asked, peering at her.

“Fainted.” I huffed, still dragging Selene tiresomely.

“Great… well, if it comes down to it, she’s my meat shield.”

“No, she isn’t.” I said sternly, hopping through the portal with her.

Luckily, my heart rose as nobody had breached this part yet. The facility was pretty big and guards had outposts around every turn, making it hell to get through. To get to Stocklord, they’d have to blast the bulletproof glass and somehow make it across the hotsprings as well as the forty foot drop.

Oh… oh…

Yeah, I turned my head just in time to hear the C4 detonate and blast through the glass and then, to my surprise, those bitches brought a whole damn zipline grapple thing to help them clear the gap. That’s some fucking bullshit!

How did they know they needed that stuff…? They must have blueprints or something for our- no, they couldn’t… that stuff is all in Blackout’s head. Then… they either hacked our cameras or something, I have no clue.

“Let’s keep moving forward. This next chamber may have enemies. Hurry up, jackass.” she ordered, running forward to the next portal. Gosh, she was so bossy. I bet she liked me. I bet Selene would be pretty angry too if she were awake… I’m pretty sure she doesn’t like our ‘cross-species’ couple, even though Twee was once a human, and she’s basically just a human with shiny horns right now.

She entered first, I didn’t know what awaited us, but as I went through the portal, it was plainly clear. She was unfortunately correct about that enemy thing.

Around ten rookie heroes stood guard, ready to bring us to justice, but I’m sure they could bring us to the grave and call it an accident.

“Superhumans! Get your guard up, guys!” one with a blue outfit shouted, conjuring floating ice spikes from his fingertips and tossing them toward us with a pretty swift move for a fresh no-name hero. Of course, they missed because I knew how to dodge. I quickly tossed Selene back through the portal and got into a battle stance, which was just a fancy pose I made up.

Shut up, it… kinda works… with intimidation… stuff...

Five more spikes hurled, along with some sort of curving purple energy ball from a quick reflexed student, I snapped reality, the ball phased through me, it would have hit me had I done nothing. I reappeared, my body jittering in place. I’d done it too fast, too recklessly.

Twee retaliated and her horns began to glow, the metal railing on the wall ripped off, forming itself into a sharp spear and launching toward the icicle teen all of that within the span of four seconds, all while dodging an attack. Maybe this is why I should train...

The metal flew through his chest, impaling him on his heart. He obviously wasn’t ready or expecting to be downright murdered by us. Now things got serious.

Three seconds it took to rush forward and blink through reality and right behind the group. I grabbed a green and black spandexed kid by the neck as I reappeared, purple cords wrapped around, stringing up to the roof, and suddenly he was suspended. The noose began to choke him, but then I realized my stupidity and had eight super powered individuals ready to take my life.

“You monster!” one screamed ear-gratingly, trying to free his friend fruitlessly. I was used to murder, it was in the business, especially when I could take my anger out on TUHF, and when I was the target of a return killing. But still, killing fresh rookies like this didn’t feel right.

I backpedalled, different attacks flying at me. I was struck once or twice, but it wasn’t enough to truly injure me. While superpowered attacks looked powerful, even when used by newbies, the raw power of the attack and your defence against them was measured on many factors of experience, training, and other such things these kids didn’t have much of.

This wasn’t cause to be careless though, enough attacks on me would eventually add up and kill me. So, with that, I realized my lack of strategy, and attempted to block the attacks with non-vital parts like my arms.

That was until one kid decided to throw a chain whip my way. “Take this, jackass!” he screamed angrily. The metal pierced my flesh, and sanguine began to flow. I was distracted and let three more attacks impact me.

Twee sliced through two at once behind the group, who was effectively cornered, but determined to go down fighting. They taught those kids sick shit. There were a mere six kids still alive, and they had possibly been given orders to die fighting. But I wanted to end the bloodshed.

“Surrender to us…” I huffed nervously, holding out my hands. Purple strings danced around my fingertips, I was able to kill them, but I was now injured quite a lot. And they obviously wanted to fight to the death, but I wouldn’t.

The attacks kept coming, and suddenly, that kid threw his whip again. The metal, not created or enchanted by his power, did massive damage, this time to my left wrist, causing me to drop focus. He flicked it around as I yelped, a quick flash of metal as it swept right next to my eye, nearly removing it as he intended. It wrapped around my right wrist now. With a quick tug, I was on the floor, another kid’s attack hit me, this one with more zeal, gashed my lower torso.

Twee was occupied fighting off the other ones in melee combat with her makeshift spear, I was cornered by the smug, whip bearing kid. His blonde hair was sweating, but his smug smile was shining as he went in for the kill.

“You’re gonna regret what you did to my friend.” he huffed, raising his whip-hand, suddenly his smile left his face, replaced with rage.

He swung, but then immediately he gasped, he flung across the room and smashed into the wall, impaled by a red cross in his chest, completely collapsing it. His dead eyes sunk back into their sockets as Selene revealed herself. “Leave, now.” she told the kids, her voice serious and afraid, but she fought it, I heard it in her tone.

The kids raised their hands in surrender, their ace slaughtered and crucified, for lack of a better word, on the wall. Only five remained, and they luckily remained quiet as I flicked my working hand around a bit, tying their arms together with my string one at a time, slowly.

Selene leaped down and hugged me, I still felt pain though, just a little less right now. I could forget for just a second.

“If you two could hurry it up, we still have a crisis on our hands.” Twee said, using her phone camera to check her ‘facepaint’. It was melting from the perspiration. She frowned, grabbing her spear from the ground and walking forward. “You heard me? Come.”

“Could you seriously fuck off for like a minute, Little Miss Halloween Costume?” Selene sighed, her reaction surprising me. “Sorry.” she silently said after. That was more like her.

“Attention Denizens of Mount Avernus!” blared the loudspeaker again, “ We have captured your leader, come out of hiding, there is no longer reason for this genocide to continue. Report to your bosses overpriced villa, then we can talk.” The 3D model had since turned off, but I didn’t need it to know who was speaking.

“Check, one two, one two, if your name is either Twee Oleander, Marionette, or The Invisible Cross, please orderly make your way to the boss’ office, you just committed juvenile manslaughter and we caught all of it on video tape. Wait, holy shit, Quin-” said a different voice, who was silenced, followed by some static feedback as the microphone was shaken up. “Thank you.” said the first voice again.

“Lovely.” I sighed. “Now I’m a child murderer.”

“You were already a child murderer and a regular murderer from that last time, only now, they know it.” Twee taunted, grinning in spite of the general mood.

I grumbled. “Not the time, Twee.”