Rolling as she hits the ground, Eldritch spins to her feet just as a pair of swords clash above her head! With a smile, she transforms her dagger into the form of a giant gauntlet and reaches above her head to grab the blades in a quick motion. Then, she crouches low to the ground as the two faux knights struggle to pull their weapons free from her grasp. In another burst of motion, she jumps, pushing them both sky high as she brings her foot up in a snap kick to the face of one of her foes!

Reeling backwards, the knight stumbles as Eldritch conjures a glowing barrier with her free hand that slams into the second knight. Unable to continue holding onto their blades, the pair falls back into the street unarmed as Eldritch lands in a graceful motion, dismissing her spell with a flick of her fingers.

Glancing up to the two villains overseeing her beat down of the minions, she asks cheekily, “That’s all?”

Struggling to his feet, one of the minions strikes a pose, one hand stroking his comically long beard as he retorts, “Knave! Lout! I shall end you!”

Striding over to the door, which proudly proclaims, “TONIGHT ONLY, MAN OF LA MANCHA!” he grabs one of the prop halberds and tears it free of the display. Then he roars and charges at Eldritch!

Seeing his fervor, his companion makes to do the same as Eldritch meets the first knight’s charge. Glowing with power, her gauntlet shines bright before she slams it down on the pavement, sending a shockwave out that causes the charging knight to stumble. A second later, her gauntlet is a whip that Eldritch cracks, wrapping around the pole of his weapon and jerking it from his hands. Spinning like a top, Eldritch pulls the weapon out of his reach before bringing it back around and cracking it menacingly at the second knight.

Seeing her neat disarming of his companion, the second knight swallows nervously before glancing back at the two villains standing atop of the theatre.

From his perch, Tiempo gestures contemptuously and says, “Ha-HA! Guards! Seize her!”

Next to him, Tango sighs and checks his costume, bored out of his mind.

From the ends of the street, two groups of guards sporting halberds, long grey beards, and ornate uniforms rush out!

Sighing, Eldritch spins her whip back to her hand and reforms it as a dagger. Then she says with a laugh, “Just you and me and your guards, eh Tiempo?”

Atop the building, Tiempo’s face turns slightly red as he blusters out, “G-get her!”

Not waiting for the guards to respond, Eldritch whispers a quick incantation and throws a web of white lines at one of the groups who promptly fall to the ground as the lines wrap around them like ropes. But before she can do the same to the other group, they close the distance and begin thrusting the spear tip ends of their weapons at her!

Diving backwards to avoid the first round of attacks, she remarks to herself, “Time to steal something from Beacon’s playbook?”

The second set of thrusts, she lights a glowing barrier on her feet and jumps above the weapons!

“Not bad!” she shouts, “But I think I can put my own twist on it!”

Then, suspended in air, she clicks her heels and a wave of light blasts out of her feet. The surge blasts forth and hammers into the guards who, as a group, fall over onto the street knocked out.

The second knight, who simply sat by watching all this, finds his courage and raises his weapon high above his head and charges with a shout. Seeing him coming, Eldritch shakes her head.

“Man you just don’t get it, you’re outmatched!” Then she shrugs and a wicked smile crosses her lips. “Now to drive the point home…”

As he charges wildly, her eyes glow bright. A second later, he stumbles. Fast as the speed of light, Eldritch closes the gap between the two and grabs onto his beard. Then she ducks under one of his arms and pulls, hard. The knight flips end over end, landing atop the pile of guards and promptly falling unconscious with the rest of them.

“Ha-HA! Not bad, Maiden!” Tiempo crows out. “But it shall all be for naught in the end, for you cannot defeat me.” Then he gestures to the side where another group of soldiers appears. Then he points to the other end of the street and to yet another group of soldiers!

Eldritch frowns and looks down to the pile of defeated minions who are shimmering and fading away right before her very eyes!

Looking back up, she asks, “Did you just create people?”

“Ha-HA!” Tiempo shouts, “My minions shall bury you!”

Before she can reply, Eldritch must turn to face the two groups of soldiers who she promptly eliminates with a few blasts of light and a swing of her dagger-turned-whip. As she does, the group shimmers and fades before reappearing at the ends of the street and charging once again at her.

“Hey!” Eldritch shouts at the pair, “With a power like that, this is all you can do?”

Striking a pose with one hand in the air, Tiempo throws back his head and says, “Ha-HA! Of course your feeble mind cannot comprehend the greatness of Tiempo!”

At his side, Tango visibly rolls his eyes. Then his gaze catches Eldritch’s and he winks in amusement.

Rolling her own eyes, Eldritch turns back to the minions and dispatches them in another swift set of moves, this time showing off by turning her dagger into a giant hammer and spinning in a circle.

“Ha-HA!” Tiempo laughs, still holding his pose, “Can you feel your limbs tiring yet? Soon my minions shall overcome!”

Back on the street, Eldritch slams the head of a guard into the ground and murmurs under her breath, “Not likely. This is easy compared to Vicious’ training.”

Tiempo, engrossed in his posing and posturing, simply continues to summon his inept guard minions endlessly. Just as unconcerned, Eldritch continues to beat them into the floor before watching them vanish and reappear at the ends of the street only to repeat the cycle over. After a few more waves, she notices that the two knights do not vanish along with the rest.

Glancing up, she asked, “Hey! Why aren’t these two going poof?”

“Ha-HA! Going poof?” Tiempo asks, offended. “My powers truly are beyond your small minded ken, poor Maiden!”

At his side, Tango crosses his arms and says in a waspish voice, “They’re my minions, not his. That’s why.”

“And you don’t mind them just lying here knocked senseless?” she replies as she snakes her arm around the halberd pole of a minion and tosses him into his compatriots.

Tango gnashes his teeth for a few seconds before replying tersely, “No.”

“Ha-HA!” Tiempo interjects, “Minions mean nothing, not when they are so easily replaced!”

“Well,” Eldritch answers, taking advantage of the lull in the fight after she trounced the last wave. “He does usually abandon them to save his own skin. But his minions always seem willing to stay behind and take the fall.”

At this, Tango shifts uncomfortably as his older brother laughs.

Seeing the two of them add odds, Eldritch cocks her head to the side, looks over to Tango, and asks, “You’re going to take that?”

Then she whirls, dodging the clumsy swing of a guard before clocking him upside the head with the butt of her dagger. Sighing, Eldritch goes to work finishing off this round of the endless attacks.

Waiting until they all fall, Tango steps to the edge of the roof and asks, “Why do you keep knocking them down? Why not come up here and fight the source?”

Eldritch smiles and says knowingly, “That’s what I’ve got you for, right?”

At her words, Tango blinks and glances back uncertainly toward his brother. At the sight, Tiempo throws back his head and says, “Ha-HA! Such a thing could never happen for the bond between brothers is truly inviolate!”

Tango merely rolls his eyes.

Eldritch nods and says, “Riiiiiggghhhht.”

Staring down at her in sudden irritation, Tango snaps out, “He is my brother. I wouldn’t betray him for some chit like you.”

Eldritch shrugs, and then spins her leg in a low kick that sends a blast of light at the approaching wave of immortal minions. Popping back to her feet, she replies, “Betray? Naw, I’m just wondering if you want to join him in the police cruiser when I decide to take him out.”

“Ha-HA! How could he betray me? He is the Rocinante to my Quixote!”

Sputtering with laughter, Eldritch almost forgets to dodge the next attack of the inept minions. “A horse! He thinks you’re his horse Tango!”

Grumbling, Tango crosses his arms and asks his brother, “Not even Sancho? I’m the dang horse?”

“Ha-HA! You cannot expect to be my squire dear brother. After all, I have my minions for such things! Ha-HA!” Tiempo replies with confidence.

Tango stares at him, openmouthed, for a minute as Eldritch continues to fight. Then he asks, incredulously, “You made me get into this costume, this fu-”

“Ha-HA!” Tiempo interrupts him. “We agreed the Spanish theme was appropriate for the heist! Man of La Mancha demands Spanish attire, does it not?”

Grunting noncommittally, Tango does not reply. Instead turns away and starts to pace, clearly angry.

After a few more minutes of the endless waves, Tango speaks up. “Alright, this is clearly not working. Can we go now, Tiempo?”

“Ha-HA! The poor Maiden tires, simply watch Rocinante! For-”

“TANGO, my name is TANGO.”

“Ah-hem,” his brother coughs uncertainly. His expression falters as he realizes his mistake and continues coughing to cover it up, “Ah… ha-Ha-HA! Well said Rocinante! Err-Tango, yes well said Tango! Ha-HA!”

His eyes narrowing, Tango taps his foot against the ground and then nods, going back to his pacing. But as Tiempo turns away from him to strike another ridiculous pose, he kicks him square in the behind!”

“Ha-HAAAAAAAAAAUUUGH!” Tiempo screams as he falls onto the street and right in front of the waiting Eldritch Maiden.

With a smile, she glances up at Tango and says, “Thanks. I think you’ve earned a pass for tonight, helping the good guys and all.”

Shuddering, Tango smarts back, “I won’t make a promise of it.” Then he bows low, the bells of his jester’s cap touching his toes, and turns before vanishing into the darkness of the rooftops and the belly of Liberty City.

Looking back down at an ashen faced Tiempo, Eldritch grins and asks, “Magic or metal?”

“M-magic,” gasps out Tiempo.

Obliging him, Eldritch smacks him with a blast of light, leaving him unconscious. Around the pair, his minions fade away and vanish leaving just the villain and the two faux knights.

Slapping a pair of cuffs on the three, Eldritch locks them up outside the theatre with a note that says, “For the police, Love, Eldritch!”

Leaning back to admire her handiwork, she says with a smile, “That takes care of that! I guess it really was an impossible dream taking me on, eh Tiempo?” Not waiting for a reply, she casts out her whip to the rooftop whence she came and pulls herself into the air, riding the force of her motion back to the top of the building and away into the night.

And so another foe falls, dear reader! While Tiempo may have been more dreamer than destroyer other enemies will not be so. But while these enemies move into position, Hailey has work of her own to do in… “Schools Back in Session!”