"Kill him!" the final Stalker clone ordered before dragging himself back to a shadowed corner of the room to try to recharge.

[ Deathflame Lvl 45 Ω

HP: 2000/2000

MP: 800/800

SP: ?]

Not only had this transformation recovered her hp and mp and increased her level, but the omega symbol beside her name showed a terrifying fact to Black Phoenix. Skyfire had become a miniboss and had all her stats increased beyond the level of what should be achievable by a level 45 character. MInibosses in World of Heroes were nearly similar to raidbosses; they were close to impossible to defeat solo.

[ Skill Used: Beast Senses Lvl 7 - Successful ]

Upon attempting to train the skill Black Phoenix learned one particularly strange thing. The passive use of beast senses was what anyone would expect, better hearing and smell, the active use, however, was almost like becoming a rat himself. A thin layer of hair grew all across his body, his jumping was increased, his teeth and nails felt sharper and a thin layer of dense hair grew all over his body. The only problems were with his low skill level his abilities only increased by so much and with his mind becoming more ratlike his minor beast telepathy skill was amplified. Ben's thoughts and sight were always looming in the back of his mind but unless he made the conscious effort to focus on it then it was usually background noise. Often times it felt like they might just end up switching places with Black Phoenix trapped in the body of a rat.

The fight was short, though it didn't seem that way to Black Phoenix. Minutes that took hours to live out as Black Phoenix decided to match force for force. Using purify only seemed to damage her and Black Phoenix didn't know what would happen if he did do the impossible and defeated her so the beginning of the fight was a superpowered game of tag while he tried to figure out a plan only this time Skyfire was it. Deathflame didn't have any of the finesse that Skyfire did, mostly resorting to brute strength but despite that, Black Phoenix timing had to be near perfect to avoid her hurtling at him like a missile, her energy claws digging deep grooves into the spots where he had been.

Every attempt to send a mental message Deathflame was met with a maelstrom of incoherent rambling. Whenever he attempted to subdue her nothing seemed to keep her down. Going as far as dislocating her shoulder or breaking her knee while lowering her HP the limbs were just quickly regenerated. No plan seemed to be working and everything was pointing to one of them not making it out alive.

"SP. . .almost gone. SP recovery. . one use. Need plan . . fast," Audrey warned fading in and out.

"Well if you have any ideas you maybe want to share them?" Black Phoenix retorted flipping over Deathflame before using airshot to knock her out of the air.

"SP undefined. . won't get tired. . Burning energy. . no net or zip ties. . no sleep skills. . lethal option. . only option."

"I'm not killing her. If anything. ."

Then it came to him; he knew what he had to do. He didn't like it of course but it seemed like his only choice.

"Guess I can't kiss you and magically wake you up can I?" Black Phoenix quipped.

Nearly out of SP and his MP all but depleted Black Phoenix stopped running and stood his ground. Deathflame landed on the ground where he was previously and reared up to attack. In a blink of an eye Deathflame burst through the air flying directly through Black Phoenix ripping a hole right through his chest. Black Phoenix dropped to his knees coughing up blood before falling to the ground. Deathflame stood above his body in confusion before feeling a hand on her shoulder. Arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her to a body behind her.

"It's ok, you killed him. It's over. Black Phoenix is dead. Your mission is over," Jam whispered in her ear.

She turned around to face him and looked up at his face. Jam finally noticed the red tears running down her eyes.

"It's over," he reassured further.

Deathflame buried her head in his chest and wrapped her arms around him, he just pulled her tighter as the illusion faded. He waited but it didn't seem to come, her status didn't change. Then he felt her claws latch into his sides, and she squeezed tighter and tighter. Jam couldn't get any air into his lung and his ribs began to crack under the pressure. She had wrapped her tail around his wrists locking him into the hug, though he was in a poor position to attempt to counter with her so close. All he could seem to do is watch his HP meter drop quickly as he could audibly hear his bones breaking. The two fell to the ground as Jam lost all feeling in his legs from his spinal cord snapping, but she never let up her hold as he began to drown in his one blood.

Task Failed:

Survive

You Are Dead

Everything was dark, not even like Jam's eyes were closed, it was more like someone had turned off the sun. Jam couldn't see his hands in front of his face but he could still feel his hands and could feel them touching his face so he had hands and a face. Splaying his arms out around himself he found nothing was around him.

"Firefist" he attempted but got nothing in response.

It was then that he noticed that he didn't see anything in his HUD. He felt the side of his face and the skin there was smooth and not scarred at all.

"Audrey?" he asked.

"She is not here," a voice responded.

The voice sounded familiar to Jam but he just couldn't place it. He wasn't fully sure where the voice came from as it sounded like it came from all directions.

"And where is here?"

"That is an excellent question Jam. That is an excellent question indeed. I wish I could tell you, I really do. I do not know myself in all honesty," the voice responded despondently.

"How long have you been here?"

"For as long as I can remember; which is to say many of your lifetimes."

As the voice went on Jam began to recognize the voice though it became clear why he didn't.

"Universa?"

"Oh, I see we have met already. I assumed this meeting was during your initial entry into Arcturus but it must be during a later date," Universa answered him without the usual melodic voice and echoing whispers she usually has.

"Yeah, I was just fighting Shadow Stalker and now I'm here."

"This plane is connected to death, though I am not sure if you are indeed dead yet or not. You are the first in many ages to come here. Maybe this is purgatory or limbo. Are those two things the same? I cannot seem to remember at the moment," she explained almost absentmindedly.

"Where are you?"

"I will guide you to my location. Walk forward."

Jam walked forward for what felt like forever and still could see nothing but darkness. Every few once in a while Universa would tell him a direction to turn.

"Now turn around."

Jam turned around and suddenly there was a dim light. He walked towards it and as he got closer he noticed there were large screens that just hovered in thin air. As he got closer to the light he could see his own body again and realized he was wearing what looked like brown monk's robes.

What the hell?

As he moved past the screens he did not expect to see what he saw. A young woman was chained up to nothing it seemed; the end of the chains just dissolved into darkness, but she was chained nonetheless with her arms out to the sides and her legs shoulder length apart. Jam moved to her quickly to check to see if she was still alive.

"Hello Jam. A pleasure to meet you in person, sort of," Universa greeted, causing Jam to nearly jump out of his skin. "My apologies, did not mean to frighten you."

"What the heck is happening here?" Jam asked.

Universa was ragged, her body was nearly emaciated, her tattered black dress hung off of her like rags and her hair was a frizzy mess. He attempted to pull at the chains but they didn't even appear to move or even rattle. Upon closer look, the cuffs appeared huge on her slight wrists. She could easily slip her whole hand through the leftover space.

"They are symbolic chains; left here to remind me that I am a prisoner here and any attempt to escape is pointless. Not that I would bother."

"Trapped here? Why?"

The question answered itself when he turned around. On the screens were thousands of different footage from every conceivable vantage point.

"This is what you were talking about? How you are in all moments at once, the past, present, and future. It's always playing out in front of you so you don't know what moment you're currently in."

"Correct."

"But, how does this work? How are you both here and there? Who have I been talking to before?"

"My body, or should I say the body I made, is there. My mind is here, observing but I am in control of my body. What you see now is just a visual representation of my mind, trapped in this empty space. This void."

"But how can you talk there and talk here?"

"Can you not speak while thinking of something else? This is just a conversation my mind is having; is thought not just the mind speaking?"

"I can't even imagine how you're still sane right now."

"It is not so bad. It was many times worse before I had a physical form. Only allowed to watch, not allowed to have any contact. Now, however, I get to stand there beside her all the time. I get to watch her look at me and actually see me. I get to hold her hand, kiss her lips, make love to her. If I can just continue to stay in those precious moments, then staying in all the rest of them is more than worth it."

One screen caught his eye as he watched a playback of his fight and subsequent death at the hands of Death Flame.

"I remember now. Skyfire killed me."

He began to chuckle.

"Interesting choice"

"I figured she'd be the death of me, didn't know it'd be quite so literally," he joked.

"You are taking your death surprisingly well."

"All have to go some time, though I am pretty sure I'm not done quite yet."

"Only time will tell I suppose."

"So, am I stuck here now? Shouldn't I have moved on or something? Why am I here?"

"To be judged," another uncomfortably familiar voice proclaimed.

The sound of the voice caused a shiver to run up Jam's spine as he whipped around to face the form walking up to him from the darkness.

"Mother?" he asked.

"Yes, this is indeed your mother's form but no I am not her."

The being walked with an overconfident stride, chin raised and arms behind their back. This didn't spell out anything good for Jam but he didn't care already nearly blind with rage at seeing his mother's form.

"Then who the hell are you?" he nearly shouted.

"You may call me Incubal. That's the closest translation into your primitive language I can provide."

"Just love to make an entrance do you not Incubal? I wonder how long you waited until the right setup."

With a flourish of Incubal's hand, Universa faded away. Or to be more accurate, Incubal and Jam switched locations. It looked like an interrogation room from primetime cop drama and Jam found himself sitting in an uncomfortable steel chair. He didn't even bat an eye; he was used to this annoying level of pageantry people like Incubal felt the need to display.

"That's better."

"What are you?"

"I guess you can call me a supreme being."

Like Mr. Probably. Great, another one.

"What am I doing here?" Jam asked through gritted teeth as he watched his mother's form stare back at him.

"You've been quite the pain in my ass, Mr. Wilson. You see I like for things to go smoothly, supers fight villains, villains fight supers. Villains lose and bam there's that magical balance. You threw that balance out of whack and no matter how much I tried to restore that balance you just kept screwing it up. I have half a mind to erase your very existence right this moment," Incubal threatened.

"For playing a game? You're upset at me for playing what I thought was a game and being good at it. Didn't know gods were so petty."

Incubal sucked at their teeth, "lucky for you, I am a generous lord of judgment. So I'll give you the opportunity to state your case of what you think your afterlife should be."

Incubal waved a hand and a file thick as a bible dropped onto the table with a thud.

"I'll just use your file to fact check."

"No thanks," Jam responded.

Incubal was nearly struck speechless, "what?"

"Do what you're gonna do buddy. Let's skip the bullshit. You already made up your mind and I'm tired of looking at you," Jam growled out the last part slamming his fists on the table. "Snap your fingers or wave your hand or whatever and send me wherever you're going to send me and stop wasting my time," he continued through gritted teeth.

"You insolent little son of a bitch."

"Yeah I am, and you're wearing her face," Jam spat.

Incubal went to raise his hand when a door appeared in the wall of the interrogation room and flew open to allow entry for Mr. Probably still in the pink-haired form of the Earth reporter Shelly Lang.

"What are you doing here ?" Incubal asked and it was like the sound had cut out as he said the name though Jam could see his lips still move.

"I caught you this time but you use my true name in front of a mortal one more time , and I'll make sure you never speak again." Mr. Probably stated matter of factly and again the name just seemed blank to Jam's ears.

"You have the nerve to threaten me trash, I will. . " Incubal didn't get to finish as Mr. Probably snapped himself and Jam away.

This time the pair arrived in a meadow blooming with beautiful flowers of all colors that rose to their waists. A small distance away was an out of place looking brown door that had no foundation around it. Mr. Probably just stood with their hands in their pockets for a good few minutes before they finally spoke.

"Well, looks like you still have work to do. Go ahead and walk through that door and you're good to go."

"Nah, I think I'll wait here and let Incubal judge me."

"Are you serious?" Mr. Probably asked incredulously.

"Are you going to tell me what it is you're hiding from me? Why I'm really on Arcturus?"

Mr. Probably continued to stare off into space before answering, "I wonder how Camilla will continue living knowing she killed you. Then again, she probably won't have to if she continues to be a slave to Shadow Stalker. Plus, even if she does manage to get away from him, Rose&Thorn will probably just kill her and then probably just be killed themselves by Might Guy or one of the other heroes."

Mr. Probably clapped his hands together, "oh well. None of my business. Have a good afterlife," Mr. Probably continued, turned and walked away.

Jam growled in annoyance and jogged over to the door, not hesitating to grab the knob and turn it. Then he was back in his body, his eyes shooting open as he laid on the ground in a puddle of his own blood.

You have Resurrected

You have lost one level and all progress towards the next level.

You have lost 5 Heroism points

HP and MP have been recovered.

HP and MP penalty for the next 24 hours will remain at 75% and recover at half normal speed

Congratulations!

You Have Received the Follow Achievement: Comic Book Cliche

You have died and came back to life. How original.

Exp Gained

+11 Heroism Points

Level UP times 2

Congratulations, You’ve Reached level 29

+3 Heroism Point

All attributes received +2 points per level up.

"Jam, you're alive?" Audrey asked.

Jam didn't bother to answer her, instead, he looked over to where Shadow Stalker stomped over to an unconscious Skyfire laid on the ground. She was no longer Deathflame, her white and orange suit restored.

"My lucky day, you were able to kill him before my power ran out. I'm tempted to take you with me, such delicious dark energy inside you. Now that you've killed your partner, it should rage through you even more, but your darkness is too unpredictable. Can't have you becoming an enemy I can't defeat later on."

Before he could kill Skyfire however Jam was behind him with his arms wrapped around his throat in a chokehold.

"How are you alive?" Shadow Stalker choked out between trying to gasp for air.

"You shouldn't be worried about how. You see when I was on the other side, I saw something really interesting," Jam told him. "Something I could never figure out before," he continued. "I saw where your real body is and I am coming for you," Jam whispered in his ear before twisting his neck, the lifeless body oozing into the shadows.

Jam stood covering one for a few minutes, waiting and watching.

It's time

Jam kneeled beside Skyfire.

[Skill Used: Heal Lvl 29 - Successful ]

Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Jam, you're here. What's going on? What happened? Did we get out? Did we win?"

He shushed her calmly, "almost. There's a bunch of Moon pawns on the way here, but we can get out of this. I just need to see your watch."

She lifted her wrist and Jam pressed the device attached to her watch.

"It's all going to be ok soon. We just get through this next part and everything is fine," he assured her pressing his forehead and hers.